China says it is willing to conduct constructive dialogue with the Vatican.

According to Wang Zuo'an, the Director General for China's State Administration for Religious Affairs, the government is willing to narrow differences, and seek improved relations between the two sides.

He made the comments at the ninth Chinese Catholic representative conference, which opened on Tuesday in Beijing for the first time in six years. 

At the opening ceremony, Ma Yinglin, President of the Bishops Conference of the Catholic Church in China, spoke of how Catholicism had developed in the country over the past six years.

Last Tuesday, the Vatican officially announced that it would allow its recognized bishops to attend the meeting in Beijing.