From the Mainland

Top religious affairs leaders shuffled
The director of China's State Administration for Religious Affairs (SARA), Ye Xiaowen, has been appointed to a new posting with the rank of minister and his deputy named to succeed him. Ye, 59, has been SARA director since 1995, with the governmental rank of vice minister. For his new posting at the Central Institute of the Communist Party of China (CPC), he takes on the titles of party chief and vice president of the political academy for democratic parties and people without party affiliation.

Ye Xiaowen & Wang Zuo'an
His deputy, Wang Zuo'an, 51, succeeds as head of SARA. Wang, who has been the chief official at SARA overseeing the mainland Catholic Church, has contacts among Vatican officials and other foreign Catholics. Kwun believes he will continue to promote development of China-Holy See relations.

The changes were announced on Sept. 16, just ahead of the 60th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China on Oct. 1. Anthony Lam Sui-ki, senior researcher of Hong Kong Catholic diocese's Holy Spirit Study Centre, opined that Ye's promotion was expected after his long tenure as SARA director. But announcing high-level changes this close to the 60th anniversary of the People's Republic of China, he described as "unusual."

Church observers and a leader of the Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association (CCPA) said they did not expect the changes to impact on China-Vatican relations, even though SARA has an important role in framing religious policy. Kwun Ping-hung, a Hong Kong-based China Church observer, commented that despite China-Holy See relations having had ups and downs through Ye's 14 years as SARA director, they have stabilized in recent years into a kind of detente. During Ye's tenure, he added, officials from China and Vatican have "made efforts in forming a basic mechanism of regular contact and dialogue."

The CCPA official went on to describe Wang as easy-going, with a good knowledge of the Catholic Church, Protestant church and Buddhism. Wang is an "appropriate successor" to head the SARA, he said.