September 16, 2024 (NYT): 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 whom 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.
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, and a July 27 meeting that Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken held with China’s foreign minister, Wang Yi, on the sidelines of a regional summit in Laos. 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.
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.
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China Aid
New York Times
