(StraightShooterNews.com) – After serving an 18-year sentence on what are widely considered to be fabricated charges, American pastor David Lin was released from a Chinese prison.
Chinese authorities initially arrested now-68-year-old Lin in 2006. He later received a life sentence for contract fraud, a charge he has always denied.
His detention stemmed from his efforts to build a Christian church in Beijing.
This activity often leads to legal troubles for Christian leaders in China due to the government’s strict stance on unauthorized religious gatherings.
“We welcome David Lin’s release from prison in the People’s Republic of China,” announced the U.S. State Department in a recent statement.
“He has returned to the United States and now gets to see his family for the first time in nearly 20 years,” it added.
Lin’s daughter Alice expressed her relief and excitement: “No words can express the joy we have — we have a lot of time to make up for.”
Lin was among three U.S. citizens labeled as wrongfully detained in China.
The other two, businessmen Kai Li and Mark Swidan, are still imprisoned on espionage and drug-related charges, respectively.
In response to ongoing concerns about “wrongful detentions” and “arbitrary enforcement of local laws,” the State Department has warned Americans to “reconsider travel” to China, as per an updated travel advisory issued in April.
House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Michael McCaul (R-TX) celebrated Lin’s release and urged similar actions for Li and Swidan.
The recent diplomatic engagements between national security adviser Jake Sullivan’s meeting with Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi and Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s discussions about wrongfully detained Americans seemed to have led to Lin’s release.
Joe Biden also raised these concerns during a meeting with Chinese leader Xi Jinping last year.
Lin, who was born in China and became a naturalized U.S. citizen, had been active in China since the 1990s, preaching and establishing an underground place of worship in 1999.
According to ChinaAid, a U.S.-based Christian nonprofit focused on human rights abuses, Lin viewed his imprisonment as an opportunity to spread his faith among fellow inmates.
Although sentenced in 2009 and with a scheduled release originally set for 2029, the Chinese government reduced Lin’s term three times.
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