Beijing, China - China said Tuesday it is sincere in its efforts to establish formal relations with the Vatican after a 50-year break, but Beijing insisted the Holy See consider Taiwan a part of China.
Both China and the Vatican have expressed interest in recent weeks in forming diplomatic relations. China forced its Roman Catholics to cut ties with the pope in 1951 and refuses to have any contact with governments that have official relations with Taiwan, which the mainland claims as part of its territory.
The Vatican is the only European government that has official relations with Taiwan.
"We are sincere about establishing ties with the Vatican," Foreign Ministry spokesman Kong Quan said. He also expressed hope that under Pope Benedict XVI, "the Vatican will create favorable conditions to normalize relations."
"The Vatican must follow the decision of the international community to treat Taiwan as an inseparable part of China," Kong said at a regular news briefing.
Last week, Benedict invited countries that do not have diplomatic ties with the Vatican to establish official relations soon. The pope did not name countries, but the ambassadors whom he was addressing at a ceremony in Rome said he clearly meant China.
A former top Vatican diplomat, Cardinal Jean-Louis Tauran, told reporters in Rome that "if they give us the possibility, we're ready tomorrow" to normalize relations with Beijing.
Catholic churches in China are run by a government-sanctioned group which recognizes the pope as a spiritual leader but has no formal relations with the Vatican and appoints its own bishops.
Faithful in China loyal to the pope have sometimes been the object of crackdowns, and clergy who lead services outside the state-sanctioned church have been jailed.