It turned out to be the mainland’s pontification on religion to its protectorate that marked Thursday’s briefing by Chinese bishops and religious leaders to senior Hong Kong Catholic clergymen.  The topic was President Xi Jinping’s vision of religion with “Chinese characteristics” in an unprecedented meeting organised by the mainland’s representative office in the city, indeed the most assertive move yet in Beijing’s attempts to influence the Hong Kong diocese, according to clerics who attended or had knowledge of the meeting.

The diocese is answerable to the Vatican and includes some high-ranking leaders who have long been defenders of democracy and human rights in a territory that is said to be semi-autonomous but is increasingly feeling the weight of Beijing’s heavy hand. While Hong Kong’s Catholic leaders have met their mainland counterparts individually in the past, it was the first time the two sides had met formally and also the first time that mainland religious officials had instigated such a meeting. There was doubtless an element of pregnant symbolism to the meeting; mainland officials and religious leaders have avoided an overtly political message.

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The meeting is also suggestive of what some religious figures, politicians and diplomats describe as the expanding role of Beijing’s Central Government Liaison Office in Hong Kong, which formally represents the mainland in the city but has traditionally kept a low profile. The Liaison Office and officials from the State Administration of Religious Affairs monitored the Zoom sessions as three leading bishops and about 15 religious figures from mainland China’s state-backed official Catholic church and about 15 senior clergymen in Hong Kong participated in the day-long meeting.

The Vatican regards Hong Kong as a single diocese so it has only one bishop. Without mentioning President Xi Jinping or issuing any instructions or orders, the mainland speakers explained how Xi’s policy of “Sinicization” aligned with long-term Vatican policies of inculturation, in effect adapting Christianity in traditional, nonChristian cultures. Xi has been an active proponent of Sinicization, setting out policies to foster religions with what he calls “Chinese characteristics” and closer ties to the party and state agenda behind it. Thus, while it was not spelt out, clearly Mr. Xi was the elephant in the room.

Earlier this month, Mr Xi told a conference in Beijing, described in official reports as the National Work Meeting on Religious Affairs, that all religions in China needed to embrace the Communist Party, expanding on one of his long-held policies. “(We) must maintain the party’s essential direction on religious work, we must continue our country’s direction for the Sinicization of religion, we must continue to take the large numbers of religious believers, and unite them around the party and the government,” Mr Xi said.