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Taiwan and China await the new Pope's verdict on ties

ILLUSTRATION: YU SHA

Among the many tasks facing Pope Benedict XVI is to decide whether the Vatican should maintain diplomatic ties with Taiwan or resume ties with China.

China and Taiwan are anxious for a Vatican decision on diplomatic recognition, and both lined up as suitors on Wednesday following the election of Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger.

"We hope under the leadership of the new pope, the Vatican side can create favorable conditions for improving bilateral ties," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang (秦鋼) said in a statement.

But he repeated Beijing's precondition for resuming ties -- that the Vatican must sever diplomatic recognition of Taiwan and must not intervene in China's domestic affairs.

President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) sent his congratulations to the new Pope via Taiwan's embassy in the Holy See. Taipei is waiting to see if Chen, who attended the funeral of Pope John Paul II, will be able to attend the coronation of Benedict XVI.

The Vatican is one of the 25 mostly small nations recognizing the Republic of China. But it has been rumored to be planning to abandon Taiwan and resume ties with China, causing anxiety in Taipei.

Just one week before Pope John Paul died, a Vatican envoy visited Beijing and met with Chinese Vice Premier Hui Liangyu (回良玉).

The Italian newspaper La Repubblica reported recently that China may give up control of its church in order to resume ties with the Vatican.

Taiwan is worried that a Vatican recognition of China could prompt its other 24 allies to shift diplomatic allegiance also, further increasing Taiwan's international isolation.

But some Taiwanese scholars dismissed the concerns.

"Resuming ties with China is not on the priority list for the new Pope. He has more urgent tasks to handle, like healing the division within the Church," said Liu Bi-rong (劉必榮), a professor of politics at Soochow University.

"Even if the Vatican drops Taiwan, I don't think it will have a domino effect on our other allies because each country has its own needs and considerations," he said.

The Vatican could also establish formal ties with China under a special arrangement, such as opening an embassy in Beijing while maintaining its mission in Taipei with a lower level of diplomatic representation.

"It is very easy for the Vatican to switch diplomatic recognition from Taiwan to China; it only has to announce that its embassy in China has re-opened," one Taiwanese diplomat suggested.

The struggle for the control of the Chinese Catholic Church could also be solved with a compromise, the diplomat said.

"They can reach an agreement so that China can give the Vatican a list of candidates for bishops, and let the Pope make the appointments," the diplomat said.

Since the founding of the PRC in 1949, China has been appointing bishops for its church, but some 4 million Chinese Catholics remain loyal to the Vatican and pray secretly in underground churches or "family churches."
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