“During the first Christian millennium the Cross was planted in Europe and during the second in the American continent and in Africa,” the Pope wrote, in a letter China’s Catholic community released last Saturday.”During the third millennium a great harvest of faith will be reaped in the vast and vibrant Asian continent,” the Pope added.

Beijing broke its ties to the Vatican decades ago after the Holy See chose to recognise Taiwan as China. There are an estimated 10-15 million Catholics in China, who owe their allegiance to the Pope but don’t get their religious rights. There is a small “patriotic church” that is fully controlled by Beijing, but not acceptable to the Vatican.

Vatican and Beijing have been negotiating for some time the terms under which diplomatic ties could be restored and Roman Catholics given more freedom to practice and preach.

There is one big sticking point though. The Vatican affirms its right to appoint bishops in China. Beijing says it will not allow the Pope’s interference in China’s internal affairs in the name of religion.

Finessing the tension between China’s notion of absolute national sovereignty and the Pope’s trans-national spiritual authority is not impossible. A deal would benefit both. The Vatican gets an entry, albeit controlled, into the world’s largest untapped “faith market”. For Beijing, it would be a diplomatic coup of sorts to have the Pope visit China before the 2008 Olympics.

The writer is professor at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore