Only a few hours separated the election of Pope Francis on March 13, 2013, from Xi Jinping as president of the Popular Republic of China the next day. Because the Vatican maintains diplomatic relations with Taiwan, and Beijing expelled the Apostolic Nuncio in 1951, the two men never with. However, the Argentine Pope never made a secret of his desire to approach Beijing. Visiting South Korea in October 2014, he was authorized to fly on Chinese airspace, a license that John Paul II had not received in 1999, duration of the previous visit of a Pope to Asia. On this occasion, Francis sent a radio message to Xi Jinping. “When entering Chinese airspace, I extend my best wishes to their excellence and their fellow citizens, and invoke divine blessings of peace and well -being in the nation.”
On the return flight, an Italian journalist asked him: “Do you want to go to China?” Francis replied: “Or the course: tomorrow! Oh, yes. We respect the Chinese people; it is only that the Church seeks freedom for its mission, for its work; no other condition.”
In “two or three occasions”, according to Benoît Vermander, a Jesuit who teaches philosophy at Fudan University in Shanghai, the Pope tried to meet XI. In vain. On September 14, 2022, the two men met in the capital of Kazakhstan at the same time, the first to participate in an interreligious summit, the second for an official visit. But they didn’t meet.
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