Beijing: TV show about the Pope, a "lunar" program

Half an hour with Pope Francis and images of faithful in St. Peter's Square; discussion on possible relations between Beijing and the Holy See. But the vision of religion remains the same as always: a political tool. Emphasis on the Taiwan issue. Chinese expert cites Wenzhou, but not the demolition of crosses in the countryside.

 

Rome (AsiaNews) - Two days ago, on February 26, at 19:30 Beijing time, a program that dealt with the question of the authority of the pope over the faithful, the relations between China and the Vatican and ' importance of religion in China and around the world aired on state television. For those wishing to view it again, click here.

It certainly makes an (good) impression to see images of the pope with the faithful gathered in St Peter's Square for the Angelus on Chinese TV. And the courage of the presenter Yang Rui in wanting to tackle this issue must be applauded, given that it is usually only covered by strictly official media, such as the Xinhua agency and the Global Times, faithful servants of the People's Daily.

However, I must say that I was not overly impressed. The interesting theme (the Pope and relations between China and the Vatican) was dismissed with a few words. Then space was given to the "problem" of relations between the Vatican and Taiwan, the problems of Islamic fundamentalism, terrorism, the Pope who "competes" with the Chinese Communist Party for the "government" of the bishops ...

The journalist Francesco Sisci, one of the two studio guests, tried to explain that Papal authority is a spiritual authority and that the Pope does not meddle in politics, but inevitably poor Pope Francis was viewed as a leader political to be feared. The other guest, Zhong Houtao,  from the Taiwan Institute of the Academy of Sciences, was really disastrous because he did everything possible to toe the  way the Chinese government line that any religion is suspected a priori of wanting to possibly overthrow the State apparatus.

This leads us to conclude that in China - even among academics – there is no mature understanding of the possible division between religion and politics, spiritual and state authorities.

One Beijing Catholic commented to AsiaNews: "The fact that it was invited an expert on Taiwan, not a expert on religion, means that for the government what is important is not religion, but national security". And indeed, all Beijing policies (censorship, controls, arrests of lawyers, rising spies, etc ...) are marked by the issue of security, which justifies any violation of human rights, including religious freedom.

But what emerges from the program, is that academics do not even know what's going on in their country. Houtao Zhong said that in China there is full religious freedom, without even mentioning that there are underground communities who lament the lack of said freedoms. And as if we lived on the moon (hence the "lunar character " of the transmission), he spoke of Wenzhou (Zhejiang) as a place where you live the faith "in complete tranquility”.  He did not even mention the campaign of demolition of crosses and churches that affected thousands of buildings and led to dozens of arrests of pastors and faithful.

A member of the Chinese diaspora commented: "It is a program full of nonsense and propaganda". In fact the service was on CGTN channel (China Global Television Network), in English, addressed to foreigners and not to the Chinese. The dialogue did not even have Chinese subtitles. Maybe it was just an act of propaganda, to show foreigners that China knows how to even discuss religion. But they do not show the Chinese. For a moment in the transmission, communism was mentioned as a "faith," in decline, but the presenter immediately changed topic.