Will the Vatican's accord with China reweave the unity of the church?

MSW: Will the Vatican's accord with China reweave the unity of the church?
In the age if monarchy, Rome let local kings appoint bishops because they had no choice in the matter and because the papacy doubled as the Italian government. It had its hands full. Sadly, during the rise of democracy, Rome pulled appointments closer, lest non-Catholic governments or local Catholic priests and (gasp) laity might revert to a Democratic model.

China has a distance problem, a cross cultural problem and an authoritarian state that won't accept outside influence, like the European monarchies if old. There was once a Christian Church in the East, according to Dairmaid MacCullock, nut it seems to have vanished with the Kahns.

In Russia, there is the question of whether Rome should be there at all. The same question may be asked of African churches, which by ancient tradition should be under Alexandria and whether Anglophone Catholic Churches in North America might unite with Canterbury under a combined linguistic Patriarch.