Feb 12, 2012 Arab Spring - Chinese Winter John W's previous articles
Within the past year, some 15 priests and sisters have been
denied entry to China.
Most of the 15 are foreigners. At least one is a local Hong Kong Chinese
This one in September last year
Why?
Well, things were going well until
- the letter on China by Pope Benedict in 2007
- the Tibet protests & the Olympic torch protests of 2008
- the Arab Spring of 2010, 2011
Benedict's letter had a disastrous effect - see this article:
Vatican & Beijing: failure to communicate
Benedict's 2007 letter put the Vatican-Beijing relationship car in
reverse.....it was too strong.
It was the beginning of a down-turn in relations.
It caused the Chinese government to call a hastily arranged meeting of Chinese
bishops
for a "toe the line" session.
I remember asking one experienced China hand what he thought of the letter on
the day it was published.
His one sound re-action: "Yuck".
The
full letter + follow-up
note to try to "spin" the letter
Matteo Ricci would never have written letters like these!
B16's letter was followed in 2008 by the Tibet protests and the Olympic torch
protests
- which caused the Chinese leadership to clamp down on everyone everywhere
This clamp down has been further tightened by
the "Arab Spring"
- for fear of the same thing happening in China.
John McCain's reference to a "Chinese
Arab Spring"
in
a talk in front of a Chinese vice-premier two weeks ago
must have been like pouring petrol on a fire, from the
point of view of China's leaders
No wonder China (and Russia!) are against "interventions" in countries like Syria. They fear they might be next.
So...we have a new Cold in relations.... a Chinese Winter
May Summer come soon!
One question for the people who want to "intervene"
in other nations:
Have the "interventions" in Iraq and Afghanistan been good for the
local people?
One question for the Chinese leadership:
Has the presence of Christianity in places like Hong Kong, Singapore, Taiwan
been good for a harmonious local society?
John W