Uncertain opening: The Catholic Church and China in the contemporary international order

This study examines the contemporary relationship between the Roman Catholic Church and the government of the People's Republic of China (PRC) within the perspective of international relations theory. It is the thesis of this study that China's current policy of religious toleration is a necessary response to the strategic need to participate in the contemporary international market system.; China's participation in the international system forms the basis for renewed and expanded contact between the Church and China after thirty years of tight state control under which the local Chinese Church was subordinated in classic Communist fashion through the formation of the Party-controlled Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association (CCPA). Both China and the Church have adopted significantly more open attitudes and approaches to the contemporary secular world: the Church since the Second Vatican Council and China since the death of Mao Tsetung. Elements in the expanded contact between the Church and China within this expanded context include the cultural obstacles between the still Western oriented Church and the traditional Chinese ecumene, ideological differences between Communism and Christianity, and the role of the Church in Chinese strategy.; Chinese acceptance of the U.S. strategic role in the late 1970s coincided with a rising movement within the Church to criticize that U.S. role from the perspective of social justice and Liberation Theology. Juxtaposition of the changing Chinese and Church positions with regard to the international system and the U.S. role within the system puts into sharp focus the question of the Church's role in the world and the issue of a Church theory of regimes. This study argues that Church values, in particular with regard to individual and institutional freedoms, in essence are consistent with values and principles of contemporary liberalism, and that the Church can play a positive role in China's integration into the international order and development of its modern political economic system.