China has freed David Lin, a US pastor who had been in jail since 2006, the State Department said on Sunday, marking the release of a man who Washington claims was wrongfully detained.
Lin entered China in 2006 and attempted to establish a Christian training center in Beijing. China’s Communist Party disapproves of such activities and routinely roots out underground Christian churches, seeing them as a threat to its power. Only officially-sanctioned, closely monitored churches are permitted under the Communist Party’s rule.
Lin was detained the same year he arrived, then in 2009 he was handed a life sentence after being convicted of fraud. The charge is often applied to home church leaders who try to raise money for expansion, according to the Dui Hua Foundation human rights group.
The U.S. State Department, which always maintained that Lin was wrongfully detained by China, confirmed his release on Sunday. The Chinese government did not make any public comment on Lin’s release during the long holiday weekend.
Lin’s daughter Alice earlier told Politico that her 68-year-old father would be arriving in San Antonio, Texas.
“No words can express the joy we have — we have a lot of time to make up for,” Politico quoted her as saying.
Last November, the chairman of the US. Senate Foreign Relations Committee urged President Joe Biden to use a meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping to push for the release of Lin and two other detainees – Kai Li and Mark Swidan.
Washington says the three were wrongfully detained. China says such cases are handled according to law.
A congressional commission is due to hold a hearing next Wednesday on the case of American citizens imprisoned in China, in particular Lin, Li and Swidan, which it said had all faced health issues.
