Choosing a new pope has more in common than you might expect with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) congress’s system for picking a new general secretary. Both processes are autocratic, secret, and rigid; they focus on the leader’s infallibility, and involve a lack of succession planning. And women don’t get a look in. China’s president Xi Jinping commands over 1.3 billion souls; so, too, will the new pope. He will also own the allegiance of an estimated 12 million Chinese. But how will he exercise his pastoral care and oversight?
Pope Francis, who was laid to rest yesterday following his death on Monday, had a ‘thing’ about China. He was keen – desperate perhaps – to visit the country. But the nearest he got was to fly over China on his visit to Mongolia and South Korea in 2014, permission not granted to his predecessor John Paul II on a similar Asian trip.
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