China v. "the Vatican"

In my view, the insistence of the government in China on selecting Catholic bishops is among the most pressing religious-freedom issues of our time.  To the New York Times, though, what's going on is a "public spat", a curious struggle between two similarly creaky and authoritarian entities, China and "the Vatican", for control over Catholics in China:

The dispute, at its core, is about how much each side is willing to cede in a struggle for control of the hierarchy of China's official Catholic Church.

Actually, the dispute, "at its core", is about quite a bit more than this.  One wishes the editors, writers, and (many of the) readers of one of the world's great newspapers appreciated this.  One imagines these editors, readers, and writers waking up in cold sweats, worrying about the threats posed to freedom by "theocrats" who would do things like put up Ten Commandments monuments or enact faith-based initiatives.  But the totalitarian government of the world's largest nation trying to run -- in order to neutralize -- the Catholic Church . . .  hmmm, interesting.