Illustration: Liu Xidan/GT

After Taiwan authorities hyped the recent transit of a French vessel through the Taiwan Straits, connecting the event with similar activities carried out by other Western countries in the region to trumpet the so-called international support, analysts said a few Western countries cannot represent the international community and Taiwan authorities' attempts of using Western military presences in the region to legitimize their separatism are doomed to end in failure.

A French naval vessel sailed from south to north through the Taiwan Straits from Monday night to Tuesday morning, announced the island's "defense authority," which claimed that it monitored the passage and said the situation was normal, Taiwan local media reported. 

This follows a transit by the Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS Higgins (DDG 76) of the US Seventh Fleet and the Royal Canadian Navy's Halifax-class frigate HMCS Vancouver (FFH 331) on October 20, said Taiwan local media on Wednesday. 

Wu Chih-chung, deputy head of the "Taiwan external affairs authority," also hyped this incident with a high-profile post on his Facebook page, linking the recent transit with other Western vessels' activities in the region, saying that "countries around the world are standing together to safeguard the common interest of regional democracy and peace." 

Li Fei, a professor at the Taiwan Research Center at Xiamen University, told the Global Times that while the US is reaffirming its "one-China policy" stance to try to stabilize ties with China, it is also trying to internationalize the Taiwan question by increasing military activities in the region and push its allies to do the same. At the same time, separatist authorities on the island would love to hype these transits as evidence of "international support for the so-called Taiwan independence," which is very provocative and dangerous.

On the recent transit, the French defense ministry said the ship had been on its way to Japanese waters after a stop in the Philippines in order to start work on a United Nations mission, Reuters reported.

Li said that DPP authorities will not be able to legitimize their dangerous separatism by hyping the military presences of some Western countries in the region, and their attempts are doomed to fail. "A few Western countries cannot represent the international community at all, and the transits of a few warships through the Straits will never undermine Chinese people's determination to realize national reunification. It will only force the mainland to strengthen its own military preparation to counter military intervention from foreign forces in the Taiwan question," he said.

"The more support and encouragement coming from the US for Taiwan separatism, the more danger the Taiwan authorities will provoke in the region, and the sooner reunification will be realized," Li noted.