China urges Vatican to drop Taiwan ties day after pope electedBy Ben Blanchard and Michael Martina
BEIJING | Thu Mar 14, 2013 5:55am EDT
(Reuters) - China hopes for improved ties with the Roman Catholic Church, it said on Thursday, a day after the election of the new pope, but it stressed the Vatican must take the initiative and end diplomatic relations with Taiwan.
China's 8-12 million Catholics are divided between the Communist Party-run Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association, that has installed bishops without Vatican approval, and an underground church, whose members meet in private, wary of state control.
China severed diplomatic relations with the Vatican shortly after the Communists took power in 1949 and has since demanded that it cut ties with self-ruled Taiwan, which Beijing considers a breakaway province.
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