Dear trisham,
Of course, that neat division between the PCA and the real Church has blurred in recent years, as it turns out that the communist government of China and the Vatican have been inching toward rapprochement by privately agreeing to common candidates for episcopal appointments, and by the Vatican secretly accepting the allegiance of previously-schismatic state bishops and priests.
I read recently that the current dust-up may have been provoked by the leadership of the PCA, itself, in defiance of the central government. It appears that there may be elements in the PCA who aren't really in favor of better relations with the Church? There was a thread alluding to this stuff in the last week or two.
sitetest
Thank you. This thread has been very informative.
Another thought:
The Chinese government might suspect that the Vatican might do something along the lines of offering conditional validity. Oddly, muddy waters favor the Vatican, because many of the PCA priests probably do act out of a genuine faith and many would be tempted to act more faithful to the Real Church, and do so without having to declare their break from the PCA. This would give the Real Church very strong influence over many million Chinese.