As soon as the Church becomes a department of government Confession withers away quickly, The Patriotic Association is a department of government. Francis has handed the Catholics of China over to the government. Because the primary Christian entity in China has collapsed the Protestants there are having a harder time of it, too. For a Communist true believer, the State and only the State is god and the, in this case, emperor - for so he is- is his prophet and messiah.
Pax tibi.