American pastor David Lin, who was convicted on trumped up charges after helping construct a Christian church in Beijing, was finally freed from China over the weekend after spending 18 years in prison.
Lin, 68, was detained by Chinese authorities in 2006 and later sentenced to life in prison for contract fraud, a charge he denied. Additionally, he was barred from leaving the country due to its exit bans. The Chinese Communist Party often brings charges against Christian leaders of unapproved church buildings. House churches are fairly common yet considered illegal in China amid ongoing persecution.
“We welcome David Lin’s release from prison in the People’s Republic of China,” the U.S. State Department said in a Sunday statement. “He has returned to the United States and now gets to see his family for the first time in nearly 20 years.”
Lin’s daughter, Alice, celebrated the news in a brief interview with Politico. “No words can express the joy we have — we have a lot of time to make up for,” she said. The younger Lin told the outlet that the State Department notified her on Saturday that her father was released and returning home; he landed in San Antonio, Texas, on Sunday.
Lin was one of three U.S. citizens that the State Department deemed wrongfully detained in China. Businessmen Kai Li and Mark Swidan remain imprisoned. Li has been held behind bars on espionage charges since 2016, and Swidan has been detained since 2012 on drug-related charges.
Because of the “risk of wrongful detentions” and “arbitrary enforcement of local laws,” the State Department warned Americans to “reconsider travel” to China in an updated April advisory.
Representative Michael McCaul (R., Texas), chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, praised Lin’s release while calling the same for Li and Swidan in a statement on Sunday.
U.S. national security adviser Jake Sullivan met with Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi in Beijing weeks ago, suggesting that Sullivan’s diplomatic visit was the impetus for Lin’s release. Secretary of State Antony Blinken has also visited Chinese officials over the wrongful detention of the three men, and President Joe Biden addressed the issue in a meeting with Xi Jinping last year.
“The President again emphasized that it remains a priority to resolve the cases of American citizens who are wrongfully detained or subject to exit bans in China,” the White House said in November.
Lin, a naturalized U.S. citizen born in China, frequently traveled to the country in the 1990s and started preaching there in 1999, according to ChinaAid, a U.S.-based Christian nonprofit committed to raising awareness about human-right abuses. His role in building a house of worship for an underground house church led to his imprisonment. Lin viewed his incarceration as an opportunity to share the Bible with other prisoners during this time, ChinaAid says.
Since his sentencing in 2009, the Chinese government reduced his sentence three times. By the time he was freed, he was scheduled for release in 2029.