When the provisional agreement between the Holy See and Beijing was first announced in 2018, a photograph from a diocese in south-eastern China circulated widely among Catholics. In the image, representatives of the Vatican stood beside two bishops – one long associated with the state-sanctioned Church, the other recognised by Rome but previously part of the underground community. The moment was widely interpreted as a sign of reconciliation and a hopeful indication that decades of division might finally be drawing to a close.