Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesperson States on Vatican-China relations: The Sides Now Have Smooth and Effective Channels

On July 15, 2016, the Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Lu Kang spoke about the latest Vatican-China relations in the regular press conference which also tackled the South China Sea, the attack on Chinese peacekeeping troops and the Nice attack.

Below is the excerpt on the relationship between the Vatican and China from the conference:

Q: Pope Francis is leading a push to improve Vatican-China relations which may lead to some agreement between the two sides short of diplomatic relations. Can you comment on that?

A: I want to reiterate that China is always sincere about improving relations with Vatican and has been making continuous efforts in that regard. The sides now have smooth and effective channels for dialogue and contact. Following relevant principles, we would like to continue our constructive dialogue with the Vatican and work towards the same direction to advance the improvement of bilateral relations. We also hope that the Vatican can adopt a flexible and practical attitude and create favorable conditions for the improvement of bilateral relations.

A Catholic priest named Paulus Gan commented in his blog, "Recalling the Q&A on Sino-Vatican relations by Chinese Foreign Ministry in the past years, (I find) that (the expressions) 'China is always sincere' and 'Vatican should not interfere in China's internal affairs and cut its ties with Taiwan' have appeared there all the time. But the (latter) speech has been replaced with 'relevant principles' with the rising relationship since Pope Francis took office. In the press conference on July 15...the word was evidently added - ' The sides now have smooth and effective channels for dialogue and contact.'... 

I associated the "special report" from Reuters on the up-to-date relationship between the Vatican and China published a few days ago. We have reasons to believe that the sides now have smooth and effective channels for dialogue and contact. May the process step forwardly steadily, bringing the long expected gospel to the Chinese church and society!"

The "special report" - "Special Report: After decades of mistrust, Pope pushes for breakthrough with China" issued on July 14 focuses in sorting out the efforts and development in resuming the conversation and relationship improvement between both parties after interviewing some two dozens Catholic officials and clergy.

Gan invited everyone to pay attention to the article that mentions that "a working group with members from both sides was set up in April", "modeled after the Joint Liaison Group that Britain and China adopted to iron out issues before the handover of Hong Kong to the mainland in 1997". 

"It is currently discussing how to resolve the issue of eight bishops who were ordained in China without papal consent " and "about 30 bishops who are part of the underground church and have pledged allegiance only to the pope", that is to say, "to resolve a core disagreement over who has the authority to select and ordain bishops in China".

It reveals that when the pope and  Xi Jinping arrived in the US at the same time to began their visit, the Vatican and the Chinese officials negotiated for a meeting at John F. Kennedy Airport on Sept. 26 last year and but it didn't happen due to some concerns from China.