Results tagged “catholicism”

• Karmapa softens stance on China [BBC] "The Karmapa Lama - Tibetan Buddhism's third-highest figure - has spoken of his admiration for Chinese culture. The comment made in an interview with the BBC Chinese Service suggested a willingness to co-operate with China. He said he backed the Dalai Lama's policy of seeking greater autonomy for Tibetans rather than independence, but blamed Beijing for deadlocked talks."
• ExxonMobil to build tech center in Shanghai [Forbes] "ExxonMobil Chemical Co., one of the world's biggest petrochemical companies, said Tuesday it plans to build a technology center in Shanghai to support its business in the region. The project will involve an initial investment of $70 million and the center will be opened in 2010, said the company."
• China, Taiwan grow closer with new surge in tourism [Reuters] "Taiwan has seen a sudden spike in tourism from China, as an effort by Beijing to improve ties helps its political rival battle recession with a long-sought boost to the service sector."

• Black and White Cat translates a collection of headlines from the earliest editions of Xinhua Daily, Jiangsu Province's oldest party newspaper. In its bid to oust the Kuomintang, the CCP positioned itself as a champion of democracy and demanded for change, human rights and general elections.
• Tao Wang of UBS explains to Thomas Crampton why he thinks the new wave of unemployment is unlikely to cause unrest in China.
• EastSouthWestNorth has a set of pictures of what is supposed to be Guangdong's most run-down school.

Shanghai Scrap brought us an interesting tidbit over the weekend on the results of the Pope's landmark letter to Chinese Catholics released a year ago on June 30, 2007. The Union of Catholic Asian News (UCAN) reports that the Pope's call for reconciliation between "underground" and "open" Catholic communities has seen some positive results. UCAN cites open and underground priests engaging in dialogue with each other, and Shanghai Scrap's Adam Minter points out a significant development in Tianjin, where more underground Catholics are attending Masses in Xikai Cathedral, a cathedral where open-Church priests preside. Underground Tianjin Catholics previously refused to enter the cathedral and instead chose to pray at the Marian grotto outside. Minter regards the Tianjin situation as exemplary in explaining the misuse of the term "underground" Catholics:

the mere use of the term “underground” is misleading, as it suggests a community of believers who meet - and exist - in secret. But, in today’s China, nothing could be further from the truth... Just to be clear: the open Catholics pray inside the cathedral, the underground Catholics pray outside the cathedral...if Tianjin’s underground Catholics were trying to remain “underground,” they couldn’t have chosen a more public place to do it.

... and so says the — surprise, surprise — China Daily! This most unlikely piece of news comes from the nation's favourite English paper shortly after we heard that China Philharmonic's been performing for the Pope:

Evangelist Franklin Graham said in Beijing on Friday that he wants his organizations to become more involved in China.

Continue reading "Evangelist Franklin Graham "hopes to do more for China""

With all the bad press surrounding Steven Spielberg's Olympic boycott, Beijing seems to be scrambling to action to diffuse all the negative publicity by wooing a most unlikely target, the Pope. From Michael Sheridan of the Sunday Times (UK):

TEMPTED by the prize of a historic visit to China by Pope Benedict XVI, the nation’s leaders have authorised a renewed effort in confidential discussions with the Vatican to heal their rift and inaugurate diplomatic ties.

Continue reading "Catholic China: Beijing woos the Pope, a new bishop for Hong Kong and a nun's gay crusade"