In four meetings held over several months, starting in October last year, the 54-year-old Mexican prelate told Catholic missionaries in Hong Kong to prepare for a tougher future as China tightens its control over the city and he urged his colleagues to protect their missions’ property, files and funds, according to four people familiar with the private sessions, who asked not to be identified because of the sensitive nature of the discussions.
Even before China imposed a sweeping national security law on Hong Kong in 2020 that outlawed "collusion with foreign forces" in the wake of the pro-democracy protests the previous year, Herrera-Corona and other envoys at the unofficial mission in the city had started discreetly moving cases of archives overseas for safekeeping, according to two people familiar with the transfer.
Reuters reported in December that officials from Beijing's Liaison Office in the city had organised an event at which Chinese bishops briefed senior Hong Kong clerics on President Xi Jinping's vision of religion with "Chinese characteristics".
By the time they finished, more than half a tonne of files on the Catholic church's activities in mainland China and Hong Kong had been shipped to Rome, in part via a friendly diplomatic connection, the three people said. Representatives from most of Hong Kong's missionary groups were briefed by the monsignor during the meetings. Three Western diplomats said they were also aware of his concerns.
A publication last year - edited by researchers Chen Jingguo of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, a leading government think-tank, and Zhang Bin of Jinan University - singled out Hong Kong's Catholics for criticism over the 2019 anti-government protests. Neither Chen, Zhang, the academy, nor Jinan University immediately responded to Reuters' requests for comment. Responding to Reuters' questions about missionary concerns over the document, a Hong Kong diocese spokesperson said it had "constant communications with local missionary societies. We exchange views with each other on different issues from time to time.
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