After half a century of hostility between Beijing and Rome, officials of the state-approved Catholic Church in China are expressing optimism that China and the Vatican will reach agreement soon on establishing diplomatic relations.
Such a development would enable Pope John Paul II, whose health is failing, to fulfil a longstanding goal and complete his much-travelled pontificate with a visit to the world's largest communist country.
"Officially the year 2000 is the last year of the 20th century, and I would hope that China and the Vatican will establish relations before the end of the century, the sooner the better," the secretary-general of the China Patriotic Catholic Association, Mr Anthony Liu Bainian, said in an interview in Beijing.
"The Chinese government has laid down two conditions for establishing relations," said Mr Liu. "One is that the Vatican must sever relations with Taiwan and recognise the People's Republic of China as the only legitimate government of the country. The other is that the Vatican should not interfere in China's affairs."
The Vatican is the only major country out of 29 which recognise Taiwan. Beijing, which is intent on isolating Taiwan diplomatically, is said to want a deal with the present pontiff on the grounds that the next pope might be more reluctant to compromise.
However, the second condition laid down by the Chinese side - non-interference in China's internal affairs - is fraught with problems. Fearful that the Pope would unilaterally appoint fiercely anti-communist bishops, the Beijing government has always insisted that it should retain the right to appoint bishops in China.
"There are two social systems in the world," said Mr Liu (66), whose office is decorated with pictures of the Blessed Virgin and the Sacred Heart. "China is a country which has adopted socialism. The Vatican should only be involved in religious affairs, but from the political viewpoint the Vatican opposes socialism. Some people in the Holy See oppose socialism and expect China to be converted in the manner of east European countries.
"The Chinese government insists that bishops must love the country, must not oppose the country and shouldn't be used by others to do any damage to the country. In other words they should not play the role bishops did in eastern Europe countries [in undermining socialism]".
A deal between the Vatican and the Beijing government could also cause turmoil among China's estimated 5-10 million underground Catholics, who have endured more than four decades of persecution. Many underground bishops and priests have made it clear in messages sent abroad that they fear they will be sold out by the Vatican if it recognises the communist government.
The division dates from 1957 when Beijing forced China's Catholics to renounce the Pope's authority and join the "patriotic" church, which now claims four million believers. In the 1980s the Vatican gave permission to the underground church to ordain its own bishops and priests without formal papal approval.
Mr Liu said he maintained contact with members of the underground church and that some lacked formal training, although he acknowledged that a number of their priests did theological studies in officially-approved seminaries before returning to the underground church.
The Patriotic Catholic Association has over time appointed a total of 1,000 clergy, he said, and two seminarians are studying English in Ireland before theological training.
Mr Liu denied - as he has done in previous interviews - that any members of the underground church are currently in prison. The Connecticut-based Cardinal Kung Foundation, which monitors Catholic affairs in China, said recently that eight Catholic bishops and scores of priests and lay Catholics were in jail.
In January Fides, the agency of the Vatican's missionary arm, said dozens of underground Catholic priests had been detained in recent months in a stepped-up campaign against religious dissent.
Relations between Rome and Beijing have been fraught in recent months. The Patriotic Catholic Association defied the Pope in December by consecrating five bishops without his sanction.
The Vatican in turn angered Beijing on March 10th when it approved the canonisation of 120 martyrs killed on Chinese soil before 1901, including native Chinese and foreign missionaries. The canonisation ceremonies are scheduled to take place on October 1st, which coincides with the 51st anniversary of Communist China.
A spokesman for the Chinese Foreign Ministry said: "We hope the Vatican takes history into account and does not do fresh things to hurt Chinese sentiments." Colonialism and imperialism had used missionaries as tools to invade China, and Chinese anger was "inevitable and the opposition of the masses natural".