The government yesterday said that it supports the Vatican’s ongoing efforts to engage in dialogue with China in an attempt to improve the country’s “deteriorating religious freedom and human rights,” but also warned that Pope Francis’ recent trip to Mongolia suggests there is a long way to go before improvement is seen.
Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Jeff Liu (劉永健) made the remarks when asked by reporters to comment on the pope’s four-day visit to Mongolia, which concluded on Monday.
During his first-ever visit to the Asian country, the pope sent a telegram of greeting to President Xi Jinping (習近平) as his aircraft flew through Chinese airspace early on Friday, as per Vatican tradition.
Photo: Reuters
At the end of a mass on Sunday in Mongolia, the pope again sent greetings to China, calling its citizens a “noble” people and asking Catholics in China to be “good Christians and good citizens.”
On Monday, the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that it has a positive attitude toward improving relations with the Vatican.
Asked to comment yesterday on the exchanges between the Vatican and Beijing, Liu said that as a country that upholds freedom of religion and protects human rights, Taiwan has always supported the Holy See in its attempts to talk to China to resolve their disputes over religious issues.
“We support the Vatican’s efforts to improve China’s deteriorating religious freedom and human rights issues with increased exchanges, and the ultimate goal of fulfilling religious freedom in China,” Liu told reporters at a news briefing.
However, Liu said foreign media have reported that China did not permit any bishops from the country to attend the papal visit in Mongolia.
Also, media reported that most of the Chinese Catholics who saw the pope in Mongolia wore medical masks, with some also wearing sunglasses and scarves, apparently to prevent them being identified by the Chinese government, Liu said.
“This shows that the Chinese government’s United Front Work Department [which manages religious affairs] is standing between the Chinese people and the pope, and that the country as a whole is standing between the people and religion,” he said, adding that there appears to be many obstacles to religious freedom in China.
Taiwan would continue to work closely with the Holy See to promote humanitarian assistance around the world and safeguard religious freedom, while at the same time deepening a decades-long friendship between the two sides based on shared values, Liu added.
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