Resident Chinese were not supposed to attend a Christian Church, but they were always accompanied by students who, if asked, would just tell the authorities that they were there to study English and make sure their teachers got to and from church safely, not religion.
The authorities would just smile and wave them through. Don't know if this was because of the Beijing Olympics or just China showing a more gentle face when foreigners were around. I expect it was some of both. She was only 19 when she went and had a generally good experience but, of course, some interesting stories to tell as well. She did pick up quite a bit of Mandarin and said it wasn't that hard to learn.
The pope needs to attend to the SPIRITUAL needs of his flock not be pushing politics and a globalist agenda