Pope Francis' has expressed his great admiration for China, adding that he would very much like to visit the world's most populous country someday.

In an interview with Asia Times, the Pope said he has been a great admirer of China ever since he assumed the papacy and vowed to exert all efforts to improve Sino-Vatican ties.

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"For me, China has always been a reference point of greatness. A great country. But more than a country, a great culture, with an inexhaustible wisdom," the pope said at the start of the interview.

                                                  Ambitious agenda

Political observers said Pope Francis' impassioned praise of China is part of his ambitious agenda to use his political and personal clout to thaw chilly relations with the mainland

Despite his ardent desire to visit Beijing, no pope has ever done so and reaching that goal would take some time, analysts said.

Diplomatic ties between Beijing and the Holy See has been cut off since China's Communist Party assumed power in 1949.

                                                  Tensions

In the following years, there had been repeated  tensions over the Vatican's efforts to appoint bishops to the 'underground' Catholic Church in China.

But China has pushed its insistence to intervene in the activities of the Catholic Church in Beijing, accepting only a state-approved Catholic Church known as the 'Patriotic Association.'

Despite this, analysts said there has been a warming of relations between the two sides in recent years as shown by China's gesture of goodwill to the Pope.

                                                Emotional

In 2014, the Pope was allowed to fly through Chinese airspace on the way to South Korea and the Pope felt overwhelmed by this show of goodwill by China.

"I confess that I felt very emotional, something that does not usually happen to me. I was moved to be flying over this great richness of culture and wisdom," said the pontiff during the interview.

The leader of the world's 1.2 billion Catholics did not forget to send the customary thank you telegram to Chinese President Xi Jinping and took advantage of the interview to extend his greetings to the President and the people of China, wishing them a very happy Chinese New Year.

                                            Sino-Vatican ties

Lu Kang, China's foreign ministry spokesman, said that the government is fully aware of the good things Pope Francis has been saying about China in the media and that Beijing has been exerting efforts to improving China-Vatican ties.

"We are still willing to have constructive dialogue with the Vatican based on this principle, meeting each other halfway, and keep pushing forward the development of the process of improving bilateral relations," he said.

"We also hope that the Vatican can take a flexible, pragmatic attitude to creating conditions for improving ties," he added.

TagsPope Francis, Holy See, Beijing, Communist Party, Sino-Vatican ties