The Vatican is close to renewing a provisional agreement with China on the appointment of bishops in the country, as the Chinese foreign ministry praised the improved relationship between the two states.

The agreement signed in September 2018 is due to expire soon and could be rolled over in the coming weeks, possibly for another two years, Bloomberg cited two people familiar with the matter as saying. A Vatican spokesman declined to comment.

Under the agreement — which has never been made public — Beijing and the Vatican can both have a say in appointing bishops in China. Proposed bishops would be elected by the bishops' conference in China, and put forward to the Pope, who can veto the choice, according to Bloomberg.

Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian said on Thursday that the provisional agreement had been implemented smoothly since its signing two years ago, with the joint effort between China and the Vatican.

Zhao said both sides had supported each other in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic and gained more trust and consensus, and they will keep close communications to improve the relationship.

But any renewal of the agreement would come at a time where China intensifies its crackdown on religion, making negotiations between Beijing and the Vatican sensitive. Chinese authorities have jailed bishops, demolished churches and mosques, and detained millions of Uighurs in re-education camps.

The Vatican is the only European state that has a formal diplomatic relationship with Taiwan, which China sees as a breakaway province.

“China wants to talk to the Vatican because it realizes the Vatican is a soft superpower — when the Pope speaks, everyone listens,” Francesco Sisci, a senior researcher at the Renmin University in Beijing, told Bloomberg.

China is wary of making the provisional agreement a permanent one, and it remains unsure about the Vatican’s future direction, director of the Renmin University’s Institute of International Affairs Wang Yiwei said.

Restoring relations with China would be problematic for the Pope, because the Vatican is seeing more repression of Catholics, and it does not want to sacrifice its Taiwanese followers, University of New Hampshire political scientist Lawrence Reardon said.

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