Photo Gallery
12.27.18
Cut Chives
2018 gave us many opportunities to look back at China’s past—the tenth anniversary of Sichuan earthquake and of the Beijing Olympics, the 40th year since the country began its policy of Reform and Opening. This year also brought changes that thrust...
Conversation
09.25.18
Should the Vatican Compromise with China?
Amidst a crackdown on Christianity in China, on September 22 the Vatican and Beijing provisionally reached a major agreement: Pope Francis will recognize seven excommunicated bishops Beijing appointed, in exchange for more influence on who Beijing...
ChinaFile Recommends
04.02.18Anxious Hong Kong Catholics Told to Make Leap of Faith over China Deal
Reuters
Beijing-Vatican deal causes divisions among Catholics in Hong Kong.
ChinaFile Recommends
02.12.18Catholics Warn of Church Schism If Vatican Makes a Deal with China
Washington Post
Influential Catholics expressed shock and disappointment about the Vatican's potential deal with Beijing.
ChinaFile Recommends
01.30.18Vatican, Eager for China Ties, Asks ‘Underground’ Bishops to Step Aside
New York Times
The decision in December came amid what observers describe as an extraordinary effort by the Vatican to advance negotiations to restore ties with Beijing after a nearly 70-year schism among Catholics in the world’s most populous nation.
ChinaFile Recommends
06.27.17China Opposes Interference After Vatican Concern Over Bishop
Channel NewsAsia
China said on Tuesday it opposed outside interference in its internal affairs after the Vatican expressed concern about a Chinese bishop it said had been "removed".
ChinaFile Recommends
03.01.17As Atheist China Warms to the Vatican, Religious Persecution ‘Intensifies’
CNN
According to a new report from U.S.-based NGO Freedom House, persecution of Chinese Christians and other faith groups has “intensified” in recent years.
ChinaFile Recommends
02.10.17China and Vatican Near Pivotal Deal on Bishops
Wall Street Journal
Accord would help end decades of estrangement between Beijing and Catholic Church
Sinica Podcast
01.13.17
Can the Vatican and China Get Along?
from Sinica Podcast
Ian Johnson is a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist who has lived in Beijing and Taiwan for more than half of the past 30 years, writing for The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, The New York Review of Books, and other publications. He has...
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12.02.16China and the Church: The “Outlaw” Do-It-Yourself Bishop
BBC
Mr. Dong is a thorn in the side of both the Vatican and the Chinese state. This 58-year-old laborer from a village in northern China calls himself a bishop
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10.21.16Pope Francis Targets Deal With China in Year of Mercy
Guardian
Agreement on issue of Vatican’s right to appoint bishops in China would be biggest diplomatic feat of Francis’s papacy
ChinaFile Recommends
10.01.15China’s Latest Ally in Its Crackdown on Religion: The Pope
Quartz
This week, Chinese president Xi Jinping and Pope Francis missed each other on their back-to-back visits to the United States.
Photo Gallery
12.30.14
Seeing China in 2014
In 2014, ChinaFile published great original work in photography. As always, we worked to look beyond stereotypical images of the country to find nuanced representations of the new and ChinaFile contributors’ commentary on it. Still, many of our...
The NYRB China Archive
12.29.14
Pope Francis’ China Problem
from New York Review of Books
China-watchers, friends of Tibet, and admirers of Pope Francis were amazed and disappointed last week when the Pope announced he would not be meeting the Dalai Lama during the Tibetan leader’s visit to Rome. The Dalai Lama was there with other...
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08.14.14Pope Francis Reaches Out to China As He Begins Asia Trip
Washington Post
Pope Francis extended his best wishes to Xi and the Chinese people on his way to South Korea through Chinese airspace, the first time China allowed that since 1989.
Caixin Media
06.10.14
A Jesuit Astronomer in a Qing Emperor’s Court
Of the 920 Jesuits who served in the China mission between 1552 and 1800, only the Italian Matteo Ricci (Li Madou) remains well known. This is understandable—it was Ricci who first gained permission for the Jesuits to live in Beijing and who...
ChinaFile Recommends
06.08.14Beijing, Vatican Prepare to Resume Talks for the First Time Since 2010
South China Morning Post
Meeting said to be in the works, but recent anti-church actions could complicate dialogue.
ChinaFile Recommends
06.04.14Catholic Cardinal Makes First Appearance at Vigil
New York Times
Cardinal Joseph Zen of the Catholic Church, a longtime advocate of greater democracy in Hong Kong and mainland China, attended the annual candlelight vigil for Tiananmen Square victims for the first time in Hong Kong on Wednesday evening.
The NYRB China Archive
03.06.14
The Brave Catholics of China
from New York Review of Books
Like most pilgrimage sites in China, the shrine in the village of Cave Gulley in Shanxi province is located partway up a mountain, reachable by steep stairs that are meant to shift worshipers’ attention from the world below to heaven above...
Culture
11.11.13
All He Needs is a Miracle
Courtesy of the USF Ricci Institute for Chinese-Western Cultural History
A portrait of Jesuit missionary Matteo Ricci by You Wenhui; painted at the time of Ricci’s death in Beijing, 1610. It now hangs at the Jesuit residence in Rome. It is the...
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03.19.13The Vatican And The Other China
International Herald Tribune
Ma Ying-Jeou was present at the Vatican during Pope Francis’ inauguration, affording the Taiwanese president a rare opportunity to mix with other world leaders.
ChinaFile Recommends
12.12.12China Reportedly Strips Shanghai Bishop of His Title
New York Times
A Roman Catholic bishop who stunned congregants and Communist Party officials last July when he renounced his government position during his consecration has been stripped of his religious title, according to two Catholic Web sites that cited...
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07.19.12A Catholic Wedding in Beijing (video)
New York Times
In China, people are flocking to the city’s oldest Catholic church for a sense of community, entertainment, or a wedding ceremony, even if they are not Catholic.