In the last half-century, Sino-Vatican relations have not been normal since the Vatican refused to admit the legality of the gov- ernment of the People"s Republic of China. On one hand, the Vatican keeps its so-called diplomatic relations with Taiwan; on the other hand, it has not stopped its interference in China"s af- fairs. In 1978, the Vatican gave "dispensations‘ to China and "sim- plified the orders of ordaining Chinese bishops and priests’ through non-legal channels; inciting and supporting a small num- ber of Catholics to resist the communists, as well as socialism. This caused the development of a so-called "underground power‘ within the Catholic Church in China. After the 1970s, a group of anti-China elements within the Vatican furthered enhanced their interference while China undergoing economic reform. On De- cember 12, 1981, when Deng Xiaoping met with the Colombo, the Vice-Chairman of the Italian Catholic Democratic Party and Chairman of the Sino-Italy Cultural Exchange Association, he stressed: "The first thing is the relationship between the Vaticanand Taiwan. If the Vatican solves this problem and admits that there is only one China, then China can establish diplomatic re- lations with the Vatican; secondly, the Vatican must respect the principle of the Three-Self"s of the Catholic Church in China. This policy is written according the development of Chinese his- tory, since, in the past, the imperialists used the church as an instrument to invade China. After the economic reform, although the Vatican indicated willingness to improve relations with Chi- nese government, and downgraded the ambassadorship in Tai- wan symbolically, it has continued its support for the "under-ground power‘, which it supported from the beginning. On Oc- tober 1st 2000, despite opposition from Chinese government and the Church in China, the Vatican canonized some serious crimi- nals in modern Chinese history, which really hurt Chinese people"s feelings. This affected the normalization of relations.
The insistence on the principle of the Three-Self"s of the Catholic Church in China is not to isolate the country from the universal church, and neither severs relations with other Catho- lic churches. Within the Vatican, the small group that is anti- socialist China still cannot stop the Catholic Church in China from communicating with other Catholics in the world. In the past half century, especially since the reform, the BCCCC and Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association and all dioceses in China have received tens of thousands of Catholic clergy and laity from all over the world, including some famous religious leaders and Catholic activists: Cardinal Etchegarcia from France, Cardinal Franz Konig from Austria, a delegation from the Asia Catholic Bishops‘ Conference, Cardinal Jaime Sin from the Philippines, and Mother Teresa from India, etc.
