Leo XIV Appoints Communist Chinese Bishop: "Love the Party!"
Andrea Ding Yang, born in Chongqing in 1981, was ordained a priest in 2007 after studying at the Beijing state seminary.
He was chosen unilateral by the Chinese state religion on 15 April. ChinaCatholic.cn states that he “was elected bishop-designate” on that date.
Beijing’s Apparatchik
He served as a formator at the National Seminary in Beijing from 2012–14, and was allowed to study at the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross in Rome in 2014–15 (Opus Dei).
What the biography on Vatican.va omits: Ding was deputy secretary-general of the state-recognized Chinese Bishops' Conference and vice-chairman of Chongqing's state-recognized Church.
He had also been elected to the Standing Committee of the Chinese 'Patriotic Association' in 2022.
Ding was selected as one of the mainland Chinese representatives invited to the 2023 Synod on Synodality in Rome (spy).
“Identification with Chinese Communist Party”
During the 2021 celebrations of the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Chinese Communist Party, Ding celebrated a Eucharist. He said that the Church should organically unite “love of the Party, love of the country, and love of socialism”.
He added that the Church should practice the faith according to law.
On March 14, 2023, he said according to the All-China Youth Federation that he uses his ordinary preaching to guide believers toward understanding “socialist core values”. He works for identification with “the Chinese nation, Chinese culture, the Chinese Communist Party, and socialism with Chinese characteristics.”
Enforcer of Beijing’s Sinicization
By 2025, Ding was actively helping implement Beijing’s Sinicization program within the Church, serving as an instructor. He led Catholics in studying the rules for the “strict governance of religion.”
ChinaCatholic.cn stated: “Fr Ding Yang taught everyone relevant knowledge concerning the Sinicization of religion.”
In June 2026, Ding reported on an eight-month regulatory education campaign that subjected clergy to the study of state religious rules and “self-examination and self-correction.”
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