BEIJING – One of China’s fiercest critics was included in a list of new cardinals by Pope Benedict XVI yesterday.

Bishop Joseph Zen of Hong Kong has led opposition to a Beijing-backed anti-subversion law and defended “underground” Roman Catholics, heavily persecuted on the mainland.

Beijing does not recognize the pope’s authority over the church in China. Although Pope Benedict has made tentative overtures to the communist authorities since his election, Bishop Zen was expected to be rewarded for his forthright stance.

He will also turn 75 at his next birthday, the retirement age for bishops who have not been appointed cardinal. “The pope really cares about China,” he said after the announcement. “He didn’t name a lot of cardinals this time. This shows his priority for China.”

Bishop Zen was born in Shanghai and was a teenage novice in Hong Kong when Chairman Mao swept to power. He has had a complex relationship with the communist government.

In the 1980s, he moved back to the mainland to run a seminary in Shanghai, part of the “official” Chinese Catholic Church.

But “official” Catholics are outnumbered by those who defy Beijing by still recognizing the pope’s temporal as well as spiritual authority.

When Bishop Zen moved back to Hong Kong, he became a leading campaigner on their behalf. Not long after he became bishop in 2002, he spoke against plans by the Hong Kong government to implement an anti-subversion and anti-sedition law at Beijing’s behest.

The plans were scrapped after half a million people, including the bishop, took to the streets in protest.

His ban from the mainland was lifted in 2004 and when Pope John Paul II died last year, a Vatican mission was in Beijing discussing conditions for a resumption of relations which he has backed.

There is one other known ethnic Chinese cardinal, Paul Shan Kuo-hsi of Taiwan. But before he died, the last Pope named a cardinal in pectore – in his heart, or secret – a term used when identifying a cardinal would put him at risk.

There was speculation that this mysterious figure was from the underground church in China. But Vatican sources have suggested that the secret may have gone to the grave with its originator.

[The Associated Press reports that Pope Benedict also named two American cardinals. Along with the Boston archbishop, Sean O’Malley, the other American selected was Archbishop William Levada, who has taken over Pope Benedict’s old job as prefect of the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith.

Both Americans on the list have extensive experience with the clerical sex abuse scandal that has roiled the church in America, though victims have not always been happy with their performance.

The Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests said last year that Archbishop Levada had been “slow to act, harsh to victims and committed to secrecy” in responding to molestation claims as archbishop of Portland, Ore., and then San Francisco.

Archbishop Levada responded that the criticism was off the mark. At the Vatican, he is now in charge of reviewing all sex abuse cases.

Archbishop O’Malley was praised for his efforts to heal the wounds in the Boston Archdiocese after Cardinal Bernard Law was pressured to resign over his handling of abuse allegations. Archbishop O’Malley helped orchestrate an $85 million settlement with more than 500 victims, though a new group of about 200 people claiming abuse say he hasn’t treated their claims with enough urgency.

Archbishop O’Malley said yesterday he was “deeply humbled and honored” to be elevated to cardinal.

Some analysts were surprise that Pope Benedict tapped two Americans, since they already have a comparatively high number of cardinals in their ranks: 15 including yesterday’s announcements.]