An American pastor who had been imprisoned in China for nearly 20 years was released unexpectedly on Sunday and has returned to the United States, according to the State Department.
The pastor, David Lin, 68, was detained in 2006 and later sentenced to life in prison for contract fraud. He had been trying to open a Christian training center in Beijing; his supporters said the Chinese authorities often brought fraud charges against leaders of “house churches” and other religious establishments not controlled by the ruling Communist Party.
Mr. Lin was one of three Americans who the State Department had labeled “wrongfully detained” by China. Generally speaking, that is a designation Washington uses for U.S. citizens who it says were taken hostage to influence American policy. Dui Hua, a U.S.-based human rights group, estimates that more than 200 other Americans are “under coercive measures” in China.
Mr. Lin’s daughter, Alice Lin, told Politico in an interview that “no words can express the joy we have” about his release.
“We have a lot of time to make up for,” she was quoted as saying.
The United States had repeatedly pressed Beijing to free Mr. Lin, including last month during a visit to China by Jake Sullivan, the White House national security adviser. Since Mr. Lin’s sentencing, the Chinese government had reduced his sentence three times; he had been scheduled for release in 2029 when he was freed.
The Chinese government has made no public statements about the release. But it has made efforts to stabilize relations with the United States in recent months as China’s economy has struggled. Despite flare-ups over trade restrictions, Taiwan and other issues, Chinese officials have agreed to more military-to-military communications with their American counterparts, and they have taken steps to restrict the flow of fentanyl into the United States.
“China is looking for ways to be perceived as less confrontational in some ways. Prisoner releases would certainly align with these efforts,” said Kevin Slaten, a Taiwan-based researcher who leads China Dissent Monitor, a project that tracks protest in the country.
“China detains so many thousands of political prisoners that it is a small cost for the party-state to release a few people if it thinks it can gain some diplomatic good will,” Mr. Slaten added.
Mr. Lin, a naturalized American citizen who was born in China, was living in California when he began making frequent trips to China in the 1990s, trying to convert others to Christianity, according to ChinaAid, a U.S.-based Christian activist organization.
China’s political environment at the time was looser, as the country tried to project openness to build its economy. But the Communist Party has always been wary of organized religion, which it sees as a potential threat to its control. During the run-up to the Beijing Olympics in 2008, the government cracked down, expelling over 100 foreign missionaries from China by the end of 2007, according to congressional testimony by Bob Fu, the founder of ChinaAid.
Mr. Lin was initially detained for helping to construct a building for a house church. He was later charged with contract fraud.
In prison in Beijing, Mr. Lin ministered to fellow inmates and translated the Bible into Chinese, according to the U.S. government’s Commission on International Religious Freedom. But his health was said to be declining.
Family members of Mr. Lin had said that Washington was moving too slowly on his case. “We don’t know how much time either of us has left,” Alice Lin wrote in a letter to The Wall Street Journal in April. “He is elderly now, and I have cancer. We can’t afford to wait.” She called on senior diplomats to prioritize her father’s freedom when they traveled to China.
Beijing has continued to crack down on Christians and other believers. Since June 2022, China Dissent Monitor has documented 36 cases of the government targeting Christians for peacefully practicing their beliefs, with raids, arrests, surveillance and other methods, Mr. Slaten said.
The other two Americans whom the State Department considers wrongfully detained are Kai Li and Mark Swidan. Mr. Li, a businessman from New York, has been held in China since 2016 on espionage charges, and Mr. Swidan, a Texas businessman, since 2012 on drug-related charges. The State Department has warned Americans to “reconsider travel” to China because of the risk of wrongful detentions and “arbitrary enforcement of local laws.”
Mr. Lin’s release will do little to change the overall tenor of the two countries’ relationship, said Drew Thompson, a former Defense Department official who is now a senior fellow at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore.
“Releasing an individual who’s been in jail for almost 20 years is not exactly a concession that would get to the heart of United States concerns about China’s governance,” he said.
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