Diplomatic relations would not be addressed in an agreement between China and the Holy See that is reportedly ready to be signed before the end of the month to settle a long-standing dispute over the nomination of bishops, a US Jesuit magazine reported on Tuesday.
The question “was not raised in the present negotiations with Beijing, nor was the question of the Holy See’s relations with Taiwan,” reported America, citing sources with knowledge of the matter.
The Holy See is Taiwan’s only diplomatic ally in Europe.
Photo: CNA, courtesy of the Embassy of the Republic of China to the Holy See
Taiwan has lost five allies since President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) took office in May 2016, as China has stepped up its suppression of Taiwan’s international presence in response to Tsai’s cross-strait stance.
Amid media speculation over the content of the agreement, which reports say could lead to the Holy See establishing diplomatic ties with Beijing, the America report cited Vatican sources as saying that the deal would bring together China’s state-backed and unauthorized Catholic communities.
A high-level Vatican delegation is to travel to Beijing for the signing, the magazine said, adding that a date has already been fixed.
“The agreement only deals with the question of the nomination of bishops. It gives each side a say in the selection of candidates, but it recognizes that the pope will have the final word in the appointment of bishops for the Catholic Church throughout mainland China,” the report said.
China and the Holy See consider it “a provisional agreement” to be revisited in a few years, it said.
The Holy See recognizes that it is “not a good agreement,” but believes “it is the only one possible at present and that, in a small, but highly significant way, it opens the door to developing a constructive and improving dialogue with the world’s emerging superpower,” the magazine said.
The report said that the text of the agreement would not be made public, even after it has been signed.
In contrast, a report by the Global Times, a newspaper owned by the Chinese Communist Party’s People’s Daily, on Tuesday quoted the agreement as saying that “future bishops in China should be approved by the Chinese government and mandated by the pope and the letter of appointment would be issued by the pope.”
Citing Francesco Sisci, a senior researcher at the Center of European Studies at China’s Renmin University, the Global Times said that the agreement “would be rather broad on the church in China and should also include provisions for future talks and changes.”
The agreement is the result of negotiations that were revived after Pope Francis took over in March 2013, America said, adding that the administration of US President Donald Trump is not happy with the agreement, a position shared by the US Catholic Church and others.
“They see it as weakening the struggle for religious freedom in China and point to the crackdown on religion in that country in recent months under [Chinese] President Xi Jinping [習近平],” the magazine said.
The Ministry of Transportation and Communications yesterday inaugurated the Danjiang Bridge across the Tamsui River in New Taipei City, saying that the structure would be an architectural icon and traffic artery for Taiwan. Feted as a major engineering achievement, the Danjiang Bridge is 920m long, 211m tall at the top of its pylon, and is the longest single-pylon asymmetric cable-stayed bridge in the world, the government’s Web site for the structure said. It was designed by late Iraqi-British architect Zaha Hadid. The structure, with a maximum deck of 70m, accommodates road and light rail traffic, and affords a 200m navigation channel for boats,
PRECISION STRIKES: The most significant reason to deploy HIMARS to outlying islands is to establish a ‘dead zone’ that the PLA would not dare enter, a source said A High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS) would be deployed to Penghu County and Dongyin Island (東引) in Lienchiang County (Matsu) to force the Chinese military to retreat at least 100km from the coastline, a military source said yesterday. Taiwan has been procuring HIMARS and Army Tactical Missile Systems (ATACMS) from the US in batches. Once all batches have been delivered, Taiwan would possess 111 HIMARS units and 504 ATACMS, which have a range of 300km. Considering that “offense is the best defense,” the military plans to forward-deploy the systems to outlying islands such as Penghu and Dongyin so that
WHAT WAS ALL THAT FOR? Jaw Shaw-kong said that Cheng Li-wen had pushed for more drastic cuts and attacked him, just for the outcome to be nearly identical to his bill The legislature yesterday passed a supplementary budget bill to fund the purchase of separate packages of US military equipment, with the combined amount of spending capped at NT$780 billion (US$24.8 billion). The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) used their legislative majority to pass the bill, which runs until 2033 and has two main funding provisions. One was for NT$300 billion of arms sales already approved by the US for Taiwan on Dec. 17 last year, the other was for NT$480 billion for another arms package expected to be announced by Washington. The bill, which fell short of the NT$1.25
‘CLEAR MESSAGE’: The bill would set up an interagency ‘tiger team’ to review sanctions tools and other economic options to help deter any Chinese aggression toward Taiwan US Representative Young Kim has introduced a bill to deter Chinese aggression against Taiwan, calling for an interagency “tiger team” to preplan coordinated sanctions and economic measures in response to possible Chinese military or political action against Taiwan. “[Chinese President] Xi Jinping [習近平] has directed the People’s Liberation Army to be ready to invade Taiwan by 2027. China has a plan. America should have one too,” Kim said in a news release on Thursday last week. She introduced the “Deter PRC [People’s Republic of China] aggression against Taiwan act” to “ensure the US has a coordinated sanctions strategy ready should
RSS