Pope Writes to China, pt II

To begin, let's look at a statement, early in the Pope's letter to Chinese Catholics:

I realize that the normalization of relations with the People's Republic of China requires time and presupposes the good will of both parties.

Yes, presupposing the good will of both parties. Well, one party doesn't have the same concept of good will:

Some Catholic websites in mainland China that uploaded Pope Benedict XVI's letter to Catholics in the mainland shortly after it was released were ordered hours later to remove it.

A priest in charge of such a website registered with the government told UCA News on July 2 he felt helpless because he strongly believes that "China Church websites should publish the pope's letter."

The priest, who asked not to be named, said some government officials who came to his office on June 29 asked about the letter but did not explicitly say he could not carry it. The next evening, he uploaded the letter to his site, but he was told on July 1 morning he was not allowed to upload the text.

China's good will seems to have a price, and they want the goods up front:

The Vatican should take actions, instead of creating barriers, if it wants to improve ties with China, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang said Saturday.

"China's stance on improving relations with the Vatican is consistent. Namely, Vatican should sever the so called diplomatic ties with Taiwan and recognize the People's Republic of China is the sole government representing China," said Qin.

"We hope the Vatican can take actions (to improve relations) and no longer creates new barriers," Qin said.

I will continue to hope for the best, but I won't hold my breath for good fruit from a wicked tree.

I'm still waiting for free trade and the market economy to bring freedom to Chinese christians. Any day now, right? Right?