XPost: alt.philosophy.zen, alt.religion.buddhism.tibetan, cn.culture.buddhism   
   XPost: talk.politics.tibet, talk.religion.buddhism   
   From: peter.terpstra7@gmail.com   
      
   Pope Francis’s China Problem   
   Jonathan Mirsky   
      
      
   China-watchers, friends of Tibet, and admirers of Pope Francis were amazed and   
   disappointed last week when the Pope   
   announced he would not be meeting the Dalai Lama during the Tibetan leader’s   
   visit to Rome. The Dalai Lama was there with   
   other winners of the Nobel Peace Prize, who—ironically—had gathered in   
   Rome after a planned meeting in South Africa did not   
   take place because Pretoria refused to grant the Dalai Lama a visa. In the   
   end, the pope declined to meet with any of the   
   Laureates. In view of Francis’s extraordinary reputation for o   
   en-mindedness, how could this be?   
      
   The Dalai Lama has a long history of meeting with the head of the Catholic   
   Church. He met with John Paul II on a number of   
   different occasions and with Benedict XVI once, in a private meeting in 2006.   
   But this time, the Vatican explained, there could   
   be no such encounter because of the “delicate situation,” and because, the   
   Dalai Lama was told, “it could cause problems.” It   
   was plain that the statement referred to relations between the Holy See and   
   Beijing. A spokesman for the Dalai Lama said he   
   was “disappointed at not being able to call on His Holiness the Pope but he   
   does not want to cause any inconvenience.”   
      
   Over the last few years, a growing number of world leaders, under pressure   
   from China, have spurned or downgraded   
   meetings with the Dalai Lama. In 2010, President Barack Obama received the   
   Dalai Lama in the White House Map Room,   
   making clear that he was meeting him not as a political leader but as a   
   religious one—which the Dalai had already proclaimed   
   was now his only role. That meeting, which ended with the Dalai Lama leaving   
   the White House through a back entrance past   
   a row of garbage cans, nevertheless infuriated the Chinese government, which   
   condemned the White House for interfering in   
   China’s internal affairs. In May 2012, after Prime Minister David Cameron   
   and his deputy Nick Clegg met the Dalai Lama   
   discreetly and briefly in the crypt of St. Paul’s Cathedral, the Chinese   
   foreign Ministry stated:   
      
       We ask the British side to take the Chinese side’s solemn stance   
   seriously, stop indulging and supporting “Tibet   
   independence” anti-China forces, immediately take effective measures to undo   
   the adverse effect, and take concrete action   
   to safeguard the overall development of China-UK relations.   
      
   China’s reaction alarmed Cameron, who was planning a visit to Beijing with   
   British business leaders, and the following year the   
   trip took place only after officials in the Cameron government made clear that   
   he had no plans for future meetings with the   
   Dalai Lama.   
      
   What happened in Rome is wholly different. Unlike the US, Britain, Norway, and   
   South Africa, among other countries, the   
   Vatican has no economic ties with Beijing, nor does it hold security   
   discussions with the Chinese. It is also usual for the Pope to   
   meet the leaders of other world faiths on purely religious grounds.   
      
   What is plain is Francis’s anguish over the fate of the estimated twelve   
   million Chinese who are Catholic and the more than   
   three thousand Catholic priests active in China. About half of China’s   
   Catholics are connected to one of the churches under the   
   Chinese Patriotic Catholic Association (CPCA), which means their bishops are   
   appointed by employees of CPCA, which was   
   created by the Religious Affairs Bureau of the People’s Republic; the other   
   half are unofficial “House Christians,” who recognize   
   the pope as their leader. Along with China’s Protestants, both groups have   
   at best uneasy relations with the Communist   
   leadership. Earlier this year, Catholic and Protestant churches in some   
   regions of China were designated as “illegal structures”   
   and demolished; in other cases in recent months, Christian religious symbols,   
   such as crosses, have sometimes been forcibly   
   removed.   
      
   Evidently, the Vatican understood what could happen if the Pope met “the   
   criminal, splittist Dalai,” as he is routinely   
   condemned by Beijing. There is always the possibility of detentions of   
   prominent Catholics and their priests, and more   
   punishments for Tibetan Buddhists, well-tried forms of Communist persecution.   
   There also could be more at stake now that   
   Beijing has signaled that it might consider improving relations with Rome. The   
   signal seems arcane but it was understood in   
   the Vatican. During the Pope’s visit to South Korea, for the first time a   
   plane carrying a pope was permitted to fly through   
   Chinese air space. In response, as he passed over China, the Pope sent a   
   message to President Xi Jinping: “I extend the best   
   wishes to Your Excellency and your fellow citizens, and I invoke the divine   
   blessings of peace and well-being upon the nation.”   
      
   Chinese Catholics who managed to tune in to foreign news would have taken   
   heart from that blessing, but the situation   
   remains uncertain. As Ian Johnson recently wrote in The New York Review,   
      
       The choice of a Jesuit to be the new pope has awakened some hope for   
   better relations because of the Jesuits’ long ties   
   with China, but there is no concrete sign of improvement, nor any realistic   
   chance for change without some change of policy   
   on Beijing’s part. Given the new Chinese leadership’s tendencies toward   
   controlling dissent and any sort of social organization,   
   this seems unlikely. That means that Catholics in China still face a conundrum   
   of whether to worship in the official Catholic   
   church, or to worship at unregistered churches that are loyal to the Vatican   
   but illegal.   
      
   After the Pope’s snub of the Dalai Lama—for that is what it was—Chinese   
   leaders must have congratulated themselves on yet   
   another proof of their international power. It was, in fact, an example of   
   what Perry Link terms “The anaconda in the   
   chandelier.” The giant snake lies quietly until disturbed, and then, as it   
   stirs, the chandelier’s slight tinkle is enough to warn   
   those below of the serpent above their heads. But while it is understandable   
   that Pope Francis should fear for the safety of   
   Chinese Catholics, beyond that—unmistakably—is Beijing’s growing   
   capacity for frightening and punishing those who might defy   
   it.   
      
      
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