China bans Vatican tours by its citizens
China has banned tour groups from the Vatican, in the latest step in an intricate diplomatic dance.
China has banned tour groups from visiting the Vatican, in the latest step in the intricate diplomatic dance between the world’s two most powerful organisations — the Chinese Communist Party and the Roman Catholic Church.
Rome is a very popular target for the millions of Chinese who now travel to Europe for holidays, with St Peter’s Basilica and Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel ceiling high on many Chinese bucket lists.
The new ruling will thus come as a severe blow. It does not prevent individual Chinese citizens from continuing to visit the Vatican, and a growing proportion of tourists are now travelling under their own steam.
But the China National Tourism Authority’s new ruling for group tours comes with severe penalties attached. Companies that are discovered to have defied such bans are liable to fines of $US60,000 ($80,000).
The authority’s website lists countries and places approved for travel. All of the 20 diplomatic allies of Taiwan — including six Pacific Island countries — are excluded. The Vatican also recognises Taiwan diplomatically, but not the People’s Republic of China. It is Taiwan’s only formal ally in Europe.
From 2004, the Vatican and St Peter’s Basilica were nevertheless approved for tour group travel, which has boomed.
Taiwan Sentinel chief editor Michael Cole comments that “despite a thaw in relations under Pope Francis, the Vatican and Beijing have failed to get closer to establishing official diplomatic ties, which would require the Vatican to end diplomatic relations”.
A series of secret talks is believed to have been under way between Beijing and Rome, seeking a formula for a new relationship. But the longstanding barriers appear as difficult as ever to surmount.
China would like to extract the Vatican from the diminishing group of Taiwan’s allies, and to encourage a greater role by Rome in supporting social welfare programs in China, as the Catholic Church does elsewhere, including Australia.
Rome wants to enliven and unite followers of the Catholic faith in China — which is split between the Patriotic Catholic Church, the established body approved by Beijing, and “underground” believers who continue to vow primary obedience to the Pope in Rome.
While the Protestant faith has boomed in recent years in China, the Catholics have not grown as rapidly, in part because of this schism.
Additional reporting: AFP, AP
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