Despite rumors that China and the Vatican are close to ironing out their differences over the appointment of Catholic bishops, the Holy See still has doubts about whether Beijing would actually carry out the terms of an agreement, a government official said.
Beijing and the Holy See have held 30 rounds of talks since dialogue began in 1987, although they were suspended during Pope Benedict XVI’s term from 2005 to 2013, an official with knowledge of the matter said on condition of anonymity.
“What really concerns the Vatican are the vandalism of crosses, [underground] bishops going missing and the delineation of dioceses in China, which is home to 12 million Catholics,” the official said.
Under canon law, it is a matter of course for the pope to appoint bishops and draw up dioceses, the official said, but added that Beijing insists the matters should be handled by the Chinese State Administration for Religious Affairs.
The issues between China and the Vatican are often oversimplified by outside observers, while they actually hinge on many different factors and their leaders’ evaluation of their countries’ internal situations, the official said.
“Even if something does come out of the bilateral talks, whether Beijing would actually honor the terms of an agreement, its considerations for [the need] to maintain social stability and its overall attitude toward religions would still be concerns [for the Holy See,]” the official said.
The official’s comments came after the Chinese agency yesterday issued a white paper titled China’s Policy and Practice of Safeguarding Religious Freedoms, which said that China’s “religious groups and religious affairs are not to be dictated by foreign powers.”
The white paper was published amid rumors that Beijing and the Vatican are close to reaching an agreement on who appoints bishops, a major roadblock that if removed is expected to cost Taiwan its only European diplomatic ally.
However, Vatican spokesman Greg Burke on Thursday last week denied the rumors, saying: “There is no imminent signature of an agreement between the Holy See and the People’s Republic of China.”
The information that Taipei has gathered by itself or from its allies accurately reflects the latest developments in the China-Vatican talks, the official said.
“Whether it is the Ministry of Foreign Affairs or our embassy in the Holy See, the government’s communication with the Vatican is smooth at all levels,” the official added.
Former Czech Republic-based Taiwanese researcher Cheng Yu-chin (鄭宇欽) has been sentenced to seven years in prison on espionage-related charges, China’s Ministry of State Security announced yesterday. China said Cheng was a spy for Taiwan who “masqueraded as a professor” and that he was previously an assistant to former Cabinet secretary-general Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰). President-elect William Lai (賴清德) on Wednesday last week announced Cho would be his premier when Lai is inaugurated next month. Today is China’s “National Security Education Day.” The Chinese ministry yesterday released a video online showing arrests over the past 10 years of people alleged to be
THE HAWAII FACTOR: While a 1965 opinion said an attack on Hawaii would not trigger Article 5, the text of the treaty suggests the state is covered, the report says NATO could be drawn into a conflict in the Taiwan Strait if Chinese forces attacked the US mainland or Hawaii, a NATO Defense College report published on Monday says. The report, written by James Lee, an assistant research fellow at Academia Sinica’s Institute of European and American Studies, states that under certain conditions a Taiwan contingency could trigger Article 5 of NATO, under which an attack against any member of the alliance is considered an attack against all members, necessitating a response. Article 6 of the North Atlantic Treaty specifies that an armed attack in the territory of any member in Europe,
LIKE FAMILY: People now treat dogs and cats as family members. They receive the same medical treatments and tests as humans do, a veterinary association official said The number of pet dogs and cats in Taiwan has officially outnumbered the number of human newborns last year, data from the Ministry of Agriculture’s pet registration information system showed. As of last year, Taiwan had 94,544 registered pet dogs and 137,652 pet cats, the data showed. By contrast, 135,571 babies were born last year. Demand for medical care for pet animals has also risen. As of Feb. 29, there were 5,773 veterinarians in Taiwan, 3,993 of whom were for pet animals, statistics from the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Agency showed. In 2022, the nation had 3,077 pediatricians. As of last
XINJIANG: Officials are conducting a report into amending an existing law or to enact a special law to prohibit goods using forced labor Taiwan is mulling an amendment prohibiting the importation of goods using forced labor, similar to the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA) passed by the US Congress in 2021 that imposed limits on goods produced using forced labor in China’s Xinjiang region. A government official who wished to remain anonymous said yesterday that as the US customs law explicitly prohibits the importation of goods made using forced labor, in 2021 it passed the specialized UFLPA to limit the importation of cotton and other goods from China’s Xinjiang Uyghur region. Taiwan does not have the legal basis to prohibit the importation of goods