What happened?
Xi Jinping has completed his trip to Rome – without visiting its best-known resident. The Chinese president came to the Italian capital from March 21-23 to discuss the strengthening of economic ties between the two countries. But there was no meeting with Pope Francis, despite last year’s Vatican-Beijing deal.
Why was it under-reported?
A non-event is easily missed, by definition. But this particular non-meeting was of interest to close observers of Beijing-Vatican relations. As the historian Willy Lam told the Asia Times, a meeting could have been “good PR for the Chinese president, given the near-universal condemnation of China’s oppressive religious policy”.
