China's attendance at Vatican organ trafficking conference welcomed as sign of better ties
Former Beijing official says event will help boost ties with Catholic Church in other areas as both sides seek deal over appointment of bishops
China’s attendance at a Vatican conference on combating organ trafficking underlines improving ties between Beijing and the Catholic Church and will build momentum for better relations in other areas, a former senior Chinese official said.
Communist China and the Vatican do not have formal diplomatic relations but negotiations towards what would be a breakthrough agreement on the appointment of bishops have made progress, the deputy head of the official Chinese Catholics association said last week.
Chinese academics will join the Vatican conference on Monday and Tuesday, for the second year in a row, state media reported.
“Relations between Beijing and the Vatican authorities are moving forward. So are relations between the two peoples,” Huang Jiefu, a former Chinese vice-minister of health and current head of the National Human Organ Donation and Transplant Committee, was cited in the state-run Global Times as saying.
“The exchanges are beneficial to world peace and are also beneficial to people from the two sides,” said Huang, who attended the conference last year. “It also creates good momentum to expand contact beyond the health sector to cultural and other areas.”