As Taiwan honoured Pope John Paul I on September 4, the Vatican continues to cosy up to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) whose brutality at home and abroad threatens not only Taiwan – an island democracy the CCP views as a renegade province – but religious and ethnic minorities within the country. Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen sent a special envoy to attend the beatification ceremony as a signal of the bond between Taiwan and the Holy See (Vatican City State remains the only European country to recognise Taiwan as an independent country).