AsiaNews is an official press agency of the Roman Catholic Pontifical Institute for Foreign Missions (PIME). The editor-in-chief of AsiaNews is Father

Priest

A priest is a person authorized to perform the sacred rites of a religion, especially as a mediatory agent between humans and deities. They also have the authority or power to administer religious rites; in particular, rites of sacrifice to, and propitiation of, a deity or deities...

 Bernardo Cervellera, a PIME missionary

Catholic missions

As the church normally organizes itself along territorial lines, and because they had the human and material resources, religious orders—some even specializing in it—undertook most missionary work, especially in the early phases...

 who also heads Agenzia Fides

Agenzia Fides

Agenzia Fides is the news agency of the Vatican. It is based in the Palazzo de Propaganda Fide in Vatican City. It is part of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples. It was formed on June 5, 1927 as the first missionary news agency of the Roman Catholic Church and was approved by Pope...

, the official news agency of the Vatican

Holy See

The Holy See is the episcopal jurisdiction of the Catholic Church in Rome, in which its Bishop is commonly known as the Pope. It is the preeminent episcopal see of the Catholic Church, forming the central government of the Church. As such, diplomatically, and in other spheres the Holy See acts and...

. News from AsiaNews is republished by the Catholic press agencies MISNA and Zenit

Zenit News Agency

ZENIT is a non-profit news agency that reports on the Catholic Church and issues important to it from the perspective of Church doctrine. ZENIT's motto is, "The world seen from Rome."...

. Originally available in the Italian language

Italian language

Italian is a Romance language spoken mainly in Europe: Italy, Switzerland, San Marino, Vatican City, by minorities in Malta, Monaco, Croatia, Slovenia, France, Libya, Eritrea, and Somalia, and by immigrant communities in the Americas and Australia...

, the website has since expanded into English and Chinese in 2003 to enhance the "missionary aspect of our news agency". AsiaNews's intended audience is Chinese university students

Higher education in China

Higher education in China is continuously growing, changing and developing. There are over 2,000 universities and colleges, with more than six million enrollments in total. China has set up a degree system, including Bachelors, Masters and Doctoral degrees that are open to foreign students...

, who it believes are "curi[ous] about Christianity" and may save China from being "a soulless market or... dictatorship". It describes its presence as "urgent" because of what it calls the "empowerment" of atheism

Atheism

Atheism is, in a broad sense, the rejection of belief in the existence of deities. In a narrower sense, atheism is specifically the position that there are no deities...

 in Chinese schools and the "persecution" of Christians in China

Christianity in China

Christianity in China is a growing minority religion that comprises Protestants , Catholics , and a small number of Orthodox Christians. Although its lineage in China is not as ancient as the institutional religions of Taoism and Mahayana Buddhism, and the social system and ideology of...

. AsiaNews describes itself as "a great accomplishment in evangelization

Evangelization

Evangelization is that process in the Christian religion which seeks to spread the Gospel and the knowledge of the Gospel throughout the world. It can be defined as so:-The birth of Christian evangelization:...

, which is the work of God" and as "bolster[ing] the [Roman Catholic] Church's mission in China". The investing portal of the Taipan Publishing Group has characterized AsiaNews an "obscure Vatican-sponsored news website" and as an "anti-communist organ of the Roman Catholic Church

Roman Catholic Church

The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the world's largest Christian church, with over a billion members. Led by the Pope, it defines its mission as spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ, administering the sacraments and exercising charity...

" whose "missionary zeal is not difficult to detect".