WASHINGTON (AP) — A Christian pastor from California has been released from China after nearly 20 years behind bars and is returning home to the United States, a spokesman said. Department of State said Monday.
David Lin, 68, was arrested after entering China in 2006, later convicted of contract fraud and sentenced to life in prison, according to the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom and advocacy groups.
“We welcome the release of David Lin from prison in the People’s Republic of China. He is back in the United States and can now see his family for the first time in nearly 20 years,” the State Department said.
“Thank God! We got the call late last night!!! Dad is free and out of Alaska now,” the pastor’s daughter, Alice Lin, texted Bob Fu, a longtime supporter, Sunday before reuniting with her father, according to the screenshot Fu shared with the AP.
“God did it!!!,” the girl texted.
The administration has been working on Lin and the others’ cases for years and has brought them up in every meeting with senior Chinese officials, including Blinken’s recent meeting with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi in Laos.
According to China Aid, a rights group for persecuted activists in China, Lin traveled frequently to China in the 1990s to spread the gospel. The group said Lin applied for a license from the Chinese government to practice Christian ministry. It is unlikely that he received the permit, and he was arrested in 2006 while helping a house church, China Aid said.
Lin was formally arrested in 2009 on suspicion of contract fraud and, after a judicial review, was sentenced to life in prison, China Aid said.
The charge is commonly used against leaders of the house church movement, which operates outside of state-sponsored religious groups, and is a crime Lin has denied, according to the Dui Hua Foundation, a humanitarian group that advocates for prisoners in China. The religious freedom commission says that “those who participate in and lead house churches often face intimidation, harassment, arrest and harsh punishment.”
In China, all Christian churches must swear an oath of loyalty to the ruling Communist Party and register with the government. Any church that is not registered is considered an underground church and its activities are considered illegal in China. Beijing has always repressed on “illegal preaching,” and efforts have only intensified over the past decade.
Lin’s sentence was reduced and he was scheduled to be released in April 2030. The Religious Freedom Commission noted in 2019 that there were reports Lin’s health was declining and he faced possible threats to his safety in prison.
China’s Foreign Ministry did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Lin’s release.
Other Americans known to remain detained in China include Kai Li, a businessman detained on espionage charges his family says are trumped up, and Marc Swidanwho was convicted on drug charges. Nelson Wells Jr. and Dawn Michelle Hunt are also incarcerated on drug charges, and both are considered “wrongfully imprisoned” by the Dui Hua Foundation, a U.S. human rights group that focuses on political prisoners and other at-risk detainees.
Dui Hua estimates that there are more than 200 Americans subject to coercive measures in China.
representative Michael McCaulThe Texas Republican, who chairs the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said he was “extremely pleased” that Lin was freed after 17 years behind bars in China and called for the immediate release of Li and Swidan.
“Lin’s capture, like so many others, marks a growing trend of hostage diplomacy by authoritarian regimes around the world,” McCaul said. said on the social platform X.
___
Associated Press journalists Courtney Bonnell and Matt Lee contributed to this report from Washington.
