Declassified Chinese government documents confirm that Mao's aim was to destroy completely the Catholic Church in China, not merely to bring it into line with the regime. Mao Zedong was a Chinese politician, communist revolutionary, and political theorist who founded the People's Republic of China in 1949 and led the country from its establishment until his death in 1976. Communism is in control in China to this day.

After the establishment of communism in 1949, the Chinese Communist Party sought for ways to bring religions in line with it. The Protestants came up with the idea of an indigenous church based on the so-called "three-self principles": selfgovernment, self-support, and self-propagation. In December 1950, Chinese Catholics followed suit, with Father Wang Liangzuo in north Sichuan province, penning the "Guangyuan Manifesto" and signed by some 500 Catholics. It declared: We are determined to sever all relations with imperialism, to do all we can to reform ourselves, to establish a new Church that shall be independent in its administration, its resources, and its apostolate.

Like the Protestant "Christian Manifesto", the Catholic manifestos spoke of the need for a "three-self" or "three-autonomies" (as it was translated into English), even though this was previously only part of the Protestant missionary approach and not discussed among Catholic missionaries. Venerable Pope Pius XII praised Chinese Catholics for their loyalty and underscoring the importance of martyrdom. He additionally spoke out against the "three-self principles” arguing that independence would make a church no longer "Catholic".

In July 1957, 241 Chinese Catholics from all parts of China, including laity, priests, and bishops, convened a meeting in Beijing with officials from the CCP and the Religious Affairs Bureau. They approved the creation of the CCPA with Archbishop Ignatius Pi Shushi of Shenyang elected as president. By early 1958, the first Catholic bishops were illicitly appointed without reference to Rome or the Pope. In June 1958, Pope Pius XII refused to recognize any consecrations performed without prior Vatican approval. The question of consecrating bishops would be a major sticking point in SinoVatican relations ever since. This became the schismatic so-called Chinese Patriotic Church no longer Catholic.

With the rise of the Anti-Rightist Campaign and the Cultural Revolution, all public religious activities came to an end and organizations like the Chinese Patriotic Church (CCPA) were shut down. However, reforms enabled a restoration of religions in the 1980s, the CCPA once again became the official state-sanctioned organization for Catholicism in China. A sizable population of Chinese Catholics remain as part of the so-called "underground church", seen as "Vatican loyalists", and who boycott masses said by CCPA priests.

In 1978, Pope Paul VI offered a special faculty for bishops in the underground church to appoint new bishops. The last Vatican-approved bishops occurred in the 1950s, three decades earlier. Peter Joseph Fan Xueyan, the Bishop of Baoding, in 1981 made use of this special faculty and consecrated three bishops without any prior approval from the Holy See. Pope John Paul retrospectively gave approval and gave further authority to Fan to consecrate more bishops without prior consent. However, given the dire situation of the Catholic Church in China, Pope John Paul II gave permission to five bishops belonging to the underground church and four bishops connected to the CCPA, all of whom were consecrated bishop between 1949 and 1955, the authority to appoint new bishops without prior approval. It was precisely in that period that bishops ordained according to CCPA rules began to request and obtain recognition from the Holy See.

Fast forward to today there was this headline on the blog of Sandro Magister, a Vatican commentator: China’s First Slap at Pope Leo. Who Suffers in Silence. While the Church was without a Pope, after the death of Pope Francis, in Shanghai an assembly of priests, nuns, and lay people under government obedience had been convened to ratify the selection of a new auxiliary bishop in the person of Ignatius Wu Jianlin, former vicar general of the diocese and a member of the archofficial Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference. It is true that according to the agreement between the Holy See and Beijing signed in 2018 under Pope Francis the Chinese authorities have the first choice of each new bishop, which the pope can approve or not but in fact has so far always endorsed.

A second slap also had its genesis in the interregnum between the death of Pope Francis and the election of Leo, when, at the end of April, news leaked that the Chinese authorities had got assemblies under their command to “elect” two bishops for two important positions. At this Pope Leo seems to be putting up with these “slaps” of the Chinese communist government seeking to maintain a puppet Church in China under the thumb of the communist regime, which continues at least for now the disastrous policy and diplomacy under former Pope Francis guided by Cardinal Parolin.

How many slaps before a wake-up to reality? There was a book years ago called You Can Trust the Communists…To Be Communists. The Vatican has ignored this, thinking their good intentions will meet with good will on the part of the communists, who only interpret this as weakness and surrender. Cardinal Zen predicted these slaps in reaction to the China policy under Pope Francis and Cardinal Parolin. Cardinal Zen is the emeritus Bishop of Hong Kong. What follows is from: https://www.ncregister.com/news/cardinal-zen-the-vatican-is-badly-mishandling-china-situation

The recent agreement between the Vatican and China is a step toward the “annihilation” of the Catholic Church in China, Cardinal Joseph Zen, former bishop of Hong Kong, wrote in an op-ed published in the New York Times. But Cardinal Zen’s op-ed said the distinction between the underground Church and the CCPA has not been eradicated. He said those who attend the “underground” Church worship in secret and are subject to persecution from the government if they are discovered. Cardinal Zen said he does not think that he properly understands how Communist China works. In Pope Francis’ home country of Argentina, the communists worked to defend the poor against government oppression, often alongside Jesuits, he said. This could be why the Pope “may have a natural sympathy for communists,” as he views them to be persecuted.

It is far different, said Cardinal Zen, in places where communists are the ruling party — like China. When they acquire power, the communists become the persecutors themselves, he said. While Pope Francis could still “veto” the nomination of a state-approved bishop, “how many times can he do that, really?” “What good is having the last word when China will have all the words before it?” he asked. He also expressed doubt that the approximately 30 bishops of the underground Church will still be permitted to function as bishops if the two churches are reconciled.

Cardinal Alfredo Ottaviani’s warning still comes to mind about placing diplomacy in the Church superior to the reality of the Catholic Faith and the welfare of the Church. Cardinal Ottaviani was the former Pro-Prefect of the Holy Office. He noted that the reason the Holy Office, now the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, was Supreme was that it assisted the Pope to teach revealed doctrine and its correct interpretation. By making the Secretariat of State greater in importance, he feared that what would prevail will be diplomacy and compromise and he predicted that this would cause great harm to the Church. It has and the harm continues. He also predicted the Church would reverse course. Please God this will be something Pope Leo will bring about.

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