Hong Kong
CNN
—
As the world rushed to pay tribute to Pope Francis following his death, the response has been comparatively muted in China – an officially atheist state with millions of Catholics whose government has had a difficult and complex relationship with the Vatican.
In the passing of Pope Francis, Beijing loses a well-respected global leader who had pushed the Vatican closer to China’s Communist Party leadership than any of his predecessors.
Nonetheless, Chinese state-controlled media’s coverage on his death has been terse, and more than 20 hours after the Vatican’s announcement of his passing neither Beijing nor China’s own state-sanctioned Catholic…
