There is good news and bad news about the Vatican’s policy of engagement with the People’s Republic of China. The good news is that the Vatican is talking to China. The bad news is that the Vatican is talking to China.
The Vatican knows it cannot simply ignore the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). It has governed China since 1949, and its current hold over the country seems secure. Furthermore, China is both the second largest economy in the world as well as the second most populous country.
Current CCP orthodoxy holds that China was the center of the world until it proved no match for Western powers. This led to the “hundred years of shame,” which lasted from about 1850 to 1950, when the CCP saved China. Only now does it have the capacity to reassert its rightful place on the world stage. Such is the party’s nationalist and messianic vision.
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