The Vatican objects, but does China care?

Was the appointment of a bishop in China a calculated act of provocation by Beijing, or evidence of its casual indifference to the Vatican?

After Chinese authorities appointed without Vatican approval last week a new auxiliary bishop, the Holy See on Saturday released an unusually candid statement of “surprise and regret.”

While the appointment which triggered that statement was not the first unilateral episcopal appointment made by Beijing since the signing of a Vatican-China agreement in 2…