Taiwan is not the obstacle to Sino-Vatican relations. The main impediment to the two countries establishing diplomatic ties is China's disrespect for its people's religious freedom. In particular, Beijing's unilateral appointment of Catholic bishops has highlighted China's unwillingness to give up its political control of religion.
Last week, China's state-controlled Catholic Church -- the Chinese Patriotic Catholic Association -- appointed Ma Yinglin (馬英林) and Liu Xinhong (劉新紅) as bishops without papal consent. In response to the appointments, Pope Benedict XVI issued a tough statement, condemning the appointments and the violation of religious freedom they represented. He also declared that the two new bishops as well as the two other bishops who carried out the ordinations would be excommunicated. This decline in Sino-Vatican relations means that the establishment of diplomatic ties is off the agenda for the foreseeable future.
For the sake of China's 12 million Catholics, the Vatican has been negotiating with Beijing over the establishment of ties ever since Pope Benedict took up his post last year. During this period, rumors proliferated that the Vatican was planning to sever ties with Taiwan in favor of China. Although Taiwan cherishes its long-term friendship with the Holy See, it understands the Vatican's concern for the Chinese Catholics, who are in more need of the Church's care.
However, millions of Taiwanese Catholics also deserve the Church's attention. There may be far fewer Catholics in Taiwan than in China, but they should all be treated with equal importance by the Church. The Vatican has a responsibility to come up with a plan that protects the interests of Catholics in both places.
China has set two conditions for normalizing ties with the Vatican: that the Holy See sever ties with Taiwan, and that it must not interfere in China's domestic affairs, including the appointment of Chinese bishops. When China ignores the Vatican and appoints bishops independently, it highlights the fundamental difficulties involved in bringing the two sides together.
In a recent report published by the US Commission on International Religious Freedom, China was listed as one of the world's worst violators of religious freedom. There are two aspects to religious freedom: respect for the individual's freedom of belief, and respect for the freedom of religious systems or cultures. Sadly, China respects neither.
Although China's economy continues to grow, the increasing gap between rich and poor is leading to economic and social conflict. China's history is full of examples of social turmoil in the name of religion, and this is generating an increasing fear of religion within the Chinese government. Be it Tibetan Buddhists, Uighur Muslims, Protestants, Catholics or Falun Gong followers, all people of faith are becoming targets for the government's suppression, both domestically and overseas. The Falun Gong follower Wang Wenyi (
It is clear that China is intervening in religious affairs and lacks respect for the inner workings of religious systems. In the case of Tibetan Buddhists, China has long blocked the return of their spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama. Trampling all over Tibetan Buddhist traditions, the government chose its own candidate for Panchen Lama as a way to control Tibet. It is continuing to apply the same methods to Catholicism by ignoring the Vatican and appointing its own bishops.
Could Asia be on the verge of a new wave of nuclear proliferation? A look back at the early history of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), which recently celebrated its 75th anniversary, illuminates some reasons for concern in the Indo-Pacific today. US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin recently described NATO as “the most powerful and successful alliance in history,” but the organization’s early years were not without challenges. At its inception, the signing of the North Atlantic Treaty marked a sea change in American strategic thinking. The United States had been intent on withdrawing from Europe in the years following
My wife and I spent the week in the interior of Taiwan where Shuyuan spent her childhood. In that town there is a street that functions as an open farmer’s market. Walk along that street, as Shuyuan did yesterday, and it is next to impossible to come home empty-handed. Some mangoes that looked vaguely like others we had seen around here ended up on our table. Shuyuan told how she had bought them from a little old farmer woman from the countryside who said the mangoes were from a very old tree she had on her property. The big surprise
The issue of China’s overcapacity has drawn greater global attention recently, with US Secretary of the Treasury Janet Yellen urging Beijing to address its excess production in key industries during her visit to China last week. Meanwhile in Brussels, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen last week said that Europe must have a tough talk with China on its perceived overcapacity and unfair trade practices. The remarks by Yellen and Von der Leyen come as China’s economy is undergoing a painful transition. Beijing is trying to steer the world’s second-largest economy out of a COVID-19 slump, the property crisis and
Former president Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) trip to China provides a pertinent reminder of why Taiwanese protested so vociferously against attempts to force through the cross-strait service trade agreement in 2014 and why, since Ma’s presidential election win in 2012, they have not voted in another Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) candidate. While the nation narrowly avoided tragedy — the treaty would have put Taiwan on the path toward the demobilization of its democracy, which Courtney Donovan Smith wrote about in the Taipei Times in “With the Sunflower movement Taiwan dodged a bullet” — Ma’s political swansong in China, which included fawning dithyrambs