淸ㆍ敎皇廳의 외교관계 수립에 대한 淸朝 관리의 인식과 실천

Abstract

After the 1880s, the Qing government officials planned to establish diplomatic relations with the Vatican in an attempt to restrict the wrongdoing of missionaries and to solve the Anti-Christian Movement. They actively communicated this matter with the Qing dynasty and the government official began establishing a diplomatic relations with the Vatican, entering the 20th Century. In an attempt to establish diplomatic relations with the Vatican to develop China's Catholicism, the government officials encouraged the Qing dynasty to actively take advantage of the changes in the international relations, such as France's separation of politics and religion. Such suggestion of the officials was published on newspapers that represented social opinions. The newspapers introduced the fast-changing relationship between France and the Vatican and actively agreed with the Qing Government officials. Despite the suggestion of the Government officials and the social opinions, the Qing Dynasty took no action to establish diplomatic relations with the Vatican. It was because of the intervention of the French Government that tried to keep holding its rights to protect Catholicism in China. Although France underwent changes in its politics-religion relationship in the early 20th Century, France did not stop intervening China's Catholic affairs. Also, the political insights of the Qing Dynasty's Ministry of Foreign Affairs were far inferior to those of Lihongzhang. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs emphasized the negative aspects of establishing diplomatic relations with the Vatican and did not actively consider the issue. Another reason why the Qing Government was not active about the diplomatic relations was because it was not urgent for the Qing Dynasty to do so because the conflicts between its citizens and the religion had been solved. The situation between the Qing Dynasty and the Vatican in Late-Qing was similar to the situation of China today. Currently, the Chinese Government officially announces that they are interested in improving their diplomatic relations with the Vatican, but insists that the Vatican must respect the policies of China's Catholic Church. In fact, the Chinese Government cannot let its people to pledge loyalty to any outer forces. They believe that all Catholic priests pledge loyalty to the Pope and it leads to a political intervention with the Chinese Government. Also, China currently campaigns for ‘One China.' Therefore, China insists that the Vatican must stop its diplomatic relations with Taiwan before attempting to normalize its relationship with Mainland China. If the purpose of trying to establish diplomatic relations with the Vatican between the late 19th Century and the early 20th Century was solving and Anti-Christian Movement issue, what China is doing today is probably a diplomatic measure to isolate Taiwan from the rest of the world.