6. First of all, today as in the past, the persecutors of the Christians falsely accuse them of not loving their country and of not being good citizens. We wish once more to proclaim - what cannot fail to be recognized by anyone guided by right reason - that the Chinese Catholics are second to no one in their ardent love and ready loyalty to their most noble fatherland (Ibid., p. 155). The Chinese people - We want to repeat what We wrote in its praise in the Apostolic Letter cited above - "from the most remote times has been eminent among the other peoples of Asia for its achievements, its literature and the splendor of its civilization, and once it had been illuminated by the light of the Gospel that greatly excels the wisdom of this world, drew from it still finer qualities of soul, namely the Christian virtues which perfect and strengthen the natural virtues" (Ibid., p. 153).