The Vatican and the Chinese

According to media reports from China and elsewhere, the Vatican is hoping to establish ties with the People's Republic of China by 2008, in time for the Beijing Olympics.

Pope Benedict XVI has launched a campaign to promote relations with countries and territories, particularly China, that have not yet established diplomatic ties with the Vatican in order to implement the late Pope John Paul II's wishes, it said.

As it has been noted elsewhere, the prerequisite for the establishment of relations the end of the Holy See's recognition of the Republic of China (i.e. Taiwan). The Holy See is the only European government to recognize the RoC.

As this ties into my twin interests of political science and religious studies, this topic is especially interesting. Personally, I think it's a bad idea to to kowtow to the Communist Chinese at the expense of Taiwan. Taiwan is a free, democratic state and mainland China is a totalitarian regime that persecutes Catholics and people of all religious denominations.

Read the complete article at China, Vatican set to establish diplomatic ties by 2008 from Viet Nam News Agency.