Question:

What does China have to gain from improving its relationship with the Holy See?

I think you have that backwards. China is not pursuing better relations with the Holy See, The Holy See is seeking better relations with the CCP through one sided concessions. China has been conducting arrests, tortures, and even genocides against religious groups for decades and presently. Non of the six major Chinese religion groups have escaped some aspect of this crackdown. Fulon Gong, Buddhism, Islam, Protestantism, Taoism and Catholism have all been targeted.

The Holy See has accepted Communist Party appointed Priests, Bishops and Cardinals. They've even accepted Communist Party edits to the Bible and Communist Party written homilies. The Chinese objective is a gradual merger of the Underground Catholic Church into the Chinese Patriotic Catholic Association (CPCA) dominated by the CCP. The Holy See hopes the estimated 97 million Chinese Christians which now outnumber members of the CCP itself will escape some of the harsher treatments visited upon the other Muslim Uyghurs and Falun Gong.

• involuntary harvesting of organs
• forced labor
• sterilization
• internment by the millions.

Catholism has so far escaped whole scale genocide in China, but their members are still being targeted. It is estimated that 20 to 50 million Chinese Christians have experienced persecution in recent years.

U.S. State Dept.

The CCP is among the worst violators of religious freedom in the world and it continues to show blatant disregard for religious freedom and exercises extreme hostility to members of all religious faiths, including Protestants, Catholics, Tibetan Buddhists, Uyghur Muslims, and Falun Gong. The CCP’s campaign of repression against Uyghur Muslims and members of other minority groups in Xinjiang continues to escalate. More than one million Uyghurs, ethnic Kazakhs, and members of other minority Muslim groups have been arbitrarily detained in internment camps since April 2017. In practice, the CCP targets everyday expression of Islamic belief such as owning a Quran, praying, avoiding alcohol or tobacco, fasting during Ramadan, as well as secular aspects of non-Chinese culture such as Uyghur language and Uyghur music.

Question:

What does China have to gain from improving its relationship with the Holy See?

I think you have that backwards. China is not pursuing better relations with the Holy See, The Holy See is seeking better relations with the CCP through one sided concessions. China has been conducting arrests, tortures, and even genocides against their major religious groups for decades. That behavior is ongoing today. Non of the six major Chinese religion groups have escaped some aspect of this crackdown. Fulon Gong, Buddhism, Islam, Protestantism, Taoism and Catholism have all been targeted.

The Holy See has accepted Communist Party appointed Priests and Bishops. They've even accepted Communist Party edits to the Bible and Communist Party written homilies. The Chinese objective is a gradual merger of the Underground Catholic Church into the Chinese Patriotic Catholic Association (CPCA) dominated by the CCP. The Holy See hopes the estimated 97 million Chinese Christians which now outnumber members of the CCP itself will escape some of the harsher treatments visited upon the other Muslim Uyghurs and Falun Gong.

• involuntary harvesting of organs
• forced labor
• sterilization
• internment by the millions.

Catholism has so far escaped whole scale genocide in China, but their members are still being targeted. It is estimated that 20 to 50 million Chinese Christians have experienced persecution in recent years.

U.S. State Dept.

The CCP is among the worst violators of religious freedom in the world and it continues to show blatant disregard for religious freedom and exercises extreme hostility to members of all religious faiths, including Protestants, Catholics, Tibetan Buddhists, Uyghur Muslims, and Falun Gong. The CCP’s campaign of repression against Uyghur Muslims and members of other minority groups in Xinjiang continues to escalate. More than one million Uyghurs, ethnic Kazakhs, and members of other minority Muslim groups have been arbitrarily detained in internment camps since April 2017. In practice, the CCP targets everyday expression of Islamic belief such as owning a Quran, praying, avoiding alcohol or tobacco, fasting during Ramadan, as well as secular aspects of non-Chinese culture such as Uyghur language and Uyghur music.

Question:

What does China have to gain from improving its relationship with the Holy See?

I think you have that backwards. China is not pursuing better relations with the Holy See, The Holy See is seeking better relations with the CCP through one sided concessions. China has been conducting arrests, tortures, and even genocides against religious groups for decades and presently. Non of the six major Chinese religion groups have escaped some aspect of this crackdown. Fulon Gong, Buddhism, Islam, Protestantism, Taoism and Catholism have all been targeted.

The Holy See has accepted Communist Party appointed Priests, Bishops and Cardinals. They've even accepted Communist Party edits to the Bible and Communist Party written homilies. The Holy See hopes their practitioners will escape some of the harsher treatments visited upon the other Chinese religious groups.

• From 1990 to 2011, at least a dozen clergy including bishops and hundreds of local Catholics were arrested, tortured and jailed in Chahar.
• Bishop Augustine Cui Tai of Xuanhua was arrested in 2007 when he was still a priest. Chinese authorities rearrested him 2013 soon after his ordination with approval from the Vatican. His whereabouts remain unknown.

Still if you look at what China has done to the Muslim Uyghurs and Falun Gong

• involuntary harvesting of organs
• forced labor
• sterilization
• internment in the millions.

Catholism has so far escaped whole scale genocide in China.

U.S. State Dept.

The CCP is among the worst violators of religious freedom in the world and it continues to show blatant disregard for religious freedom and exercises extreme hostility to members of all religious faiths, including Protestants, Catholics, Tibetan Buddhists, Uyghur Muslims, and Falun Gong. The CCP’s campaign of repression against Uyghur Muslims and members of other minority groups in Xinjiang continues to escalate. More than one million Uyghurs, ethnic Kazakhs, and members of other minority Muslim groups have been arbitrarily detained in internment camps since April 2017. In practice, the CCP targets everyday expression of Islamic belief such as owning a Quran, praying, avoiding alcohol or tobacco, fasting during Ramadan, as well as secular aspects of non-Chinese culture such as Uyghur language and Uyghur music.

Question:

What does China have to gain from improving its relationship with the Holy See?

I think you have that backwards. China is not pursuing better relations with the Holy See, The Holy See is seeking better relations with the CCP through one sided concessions. China has been conducting arrests, tortures, and even genocides against religious groups for decades and presently. Non of the six major Chinese religion groups have escaped some aspect of this crackdown. Fulon Gong, Buddhism, Islam, Protestantism, Taoism and Catholism have all been targeted.

The Holy See has accepted Communist Party appointed Priests, Bishops and Cardinals. They've even accepted Communist Party edits to the Bible and Communist Party written homilies. The Chinese objective is a gradual merger of the Underground Catholic Church into the Chinese Patriotic Catholic Association (CPCA) dominated by the CCP. The Holy See hopes the estimated 97 million Chinese Christians which now outnumber members of the CCP itself will escape some of the harsher treatments visited upon the other Muslim Uyghurs and Falun Gong.

• involuntary harvesting of organs
• forced labor
• sterilization
• internment by the millions.

Catholism has so far escaped whole scale genocide in China, but their members are still being targeted. It is estimated that 20 to 50 million Chinese Christians have experienced persecution in recent years.

U.S. State Dept.

The CCP is among the worst violators of religious freedom in the world and it continues to show blatant disregard for religious freedom and exercises extreme hostility to members of all religious faiths, including Protestants, Catholics, Tibetan Buddhists, Uyghur Muslims, and Falun Gong. The CCP’s campaign of repression against Uyghur Muslims and members of other minority groups in Xinjiang continues to escalate. More than one million Uyghurs, ethnic Kazakhs, and members of other minority Muslim groups have been arbitrarily detained in internment camps since April 2017. In practice, the CCP targets everyday expression of Islamic belief such as owning a Quran, praying, avoiding alcohol or tobacco, fasting during Ramadan, as well as secular aspects of non-Chinese culture such as Uyghur language and Uyghur music.