section_path: Theological emphases and teachings/International policy/Position toward China
section_name: Position toward China
paragraph_text: Position toward China
  
  Francis took a more conciliatory approach toward the People's Republic of China than any previous pope. He continued the Vatican's longstanding diplomatic recognition of the Republic of China (Taiwan), rather than the People's Republic of China; Vatican City is one of just 12 countries to formally recognize Taiwan. In 2018, however, Francis approved a provisional Vatican-China agreement intended to normalize the situation of China's Catholics who numbered approximately 10 million as of 2024. Before, the Chinese government claimed the authority to appoint bishops, without papal approval, through the state-controlled Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association, in contravention of longstanding church doctrine. Under the 2018 agreement, the Vatican consults with the Chinese government on the appointment of bishops and pledged not to appoint any bishop in China without Beijing's approval; in return, the Chinese government recognized the pope as the supreme head of the Catholic Church. The agreement was renewed for two years in 2020.
  
  Francis's efforts toward rapprochement with China were highly controversial; a leading critic, Cardinal Joseph Zen, said the 2018 agreement was a step toward the "annihilation" of the Catholic Church in China. Critics said that the 2018 agreement "sold out" Chinese Catholics by accepting infringements on religious freedom, undermining the Vatican's spiritual authority.
  
  The Chinese government repeatedly violated the 2018 deal with the Vatican. Francis had defended the Vatican's dialogue with China on the appointment of new bishops, saying in 2021 that uneasy dialogue was better than no dialogue at all. From the signing of the agreement until 2022, only six Catholic bishops in China were appointed. In November 2022, the Vatican publicly accused China of violating the agreement by installing John Peng Weizhao as an auxiliary bishop without Vatican approval. In April 2023, the Chinese government also installed Joseph Shen Bin as bishop of Shanghai without Vatican approval. Three months later, Francis recognized Shen Bin's appointment; the Vatican secretary of state, Pietro Parolin, said that the pope wanted to "remedy the canonical irregularity created in Shanghai, in view of the greater good of the diocese and the fruitful exercise of the bishop's pastoral ministry." The Vatican and the Chinese government renewed the agreement in 2022 and again in 2024.
  
  In November 2020, Francis named China's Uyghur minority among a list of the world's persecuted peoples. He wrote: "I think often of persecuted peoples: the Rohingya, the poor Uighurs, the Yazidi —what ISIS did to them was truly cruel—or Christians in Egypt and Pakistan killed by bombs that went off while they prayed in church." Zhao Lijian, the spokesman of the Foreign Ministry of China, said Francis's remarks had "no factual basis".
  
  In 2019, during the Hong Kong pro-democracy protests, Francis was criticized by Zen and other Catholic clergy in Hong Kong for failing to take a stand against China's repression and instead being quoted as saying, "I would like to go to China. I love China." Francis compared the protests in Hong Kong to those seen in Chile and in France.