Censorship and China

.

The agreement between Pope Francis and the Chinese Communist Party is a very bad idea. Giving this authority to a Communist atheist government is insane— @WJMcGurn, @WSJOpinion editorial board

Time Magazine headline:

Pope Francis Admits His Historic Deal With Beijing Will Cause Suffering in China's 'Underground' Churches

and just ignore the bishops and laypeople who will suffer because of this: he cites this letter from two (?!) bishops there that they support his coverup of the sexual scandal, so they obviously love him and will go along with his dictates, so everything is honkey dorey.

While acknowledging the suffering of some underground faithful in China, Francis pointed to what he considered a good sign that the church is beginning to unify.

He noted that in the weeks after a retired Vatican ambassador accused him of covering up the sexual misconduct of an American cardinal, bishops conferences around the world wrote to him voicing their support.

The Chinese faithful wrote to him as well, he said.

Both an underground bishop and a bishop of the Patriotic Church signed the same letter.

Italics mine.

“Together, both of them. And faithful, both of them. For me this is a signal,” Francis said.

uh, faithful to Jesus or faithful to the dictator Pope?
---------------
and it's not just the Catholic church bowing to Caesar/Emperor Xi:

from Instapundit: 

Google and Privatized Authoritarianism: The tech giant appears willing to do almost anything to win access to the vast Chinese market. If they’re willing to do this abroad, what are they willing to do here?Related: Google Suppresses Memo Revealing Plans to Closely Track Search Users in China.

...
and of course, thanks to President Obama telling PNoy not to stop them except via the courts, China now owns the oil and can block the shipping lanes in the West Philippine Sea.

And they are openly writing stories in their newspapers that they "own" Luzon.

Sigh.

I am not paranoid about this at all, but I did check with my son and he has a spare bedroom for me in case war breaks out here and I have to flee to the USA. I had to leave two African countries in a hurry when trouble escalated quickly, so it's always good to have contingency plans.