China frees American pastor after 18 years in detention

TAIPEI, Taiwan — An American pastor jailed in China for more than 18 years has been released this week, according to the State Department on Monday. 

68-year-old Lin, a naturalized US citizen, had gone back to the country of his birth in 2006, after applying for permission from the Chinese government to open a Christian church building there.

But he was detained shortly afterwards and was handed a life sentence in 2009 for contract fraud, a charge Lin and his family deny.

According to the Dui Hua Foundation, a U.S.-based human rights advocacy group, Lin’s sentence had been reduced several times since 2012. And prior to the most recent reduction, he was set to be released in December 2029.

The State Department considers Lin as “wrongfully detained” in China and said it “welcomed” his release from the Chinese prison.

“He has returned to the United States and now gets to see his family for the first time in nearly 20 years,” it says in a statement shared with NPR.

“No words can express the joy we have — we have a lot of time to make up for,” his daughter, Alice Lin, told Politico.

Lin was released the week before a U.S. congressional hearing to be held on Washington on other Americans considered “wrongfully detained” in China. The detainees’ families say they suffering from serious health issues.

Among them are Kai Li, a businessman detained in 2016 on spying charges, and Mark Swidan, a businessman who was detained in 2012 for alleged narcotics trafficking. The families of both men have denied the charges.

During his last trip to China this April, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said it remains “a top priority to resolve the cases of American citizens who are wrongfully detained or subject to exit bans in China.”

Since 2012, China has increased the imposition of exit bans on both Chinese and foreign national, according to human rights groups. Beijing rejects these characterizations.

Last summer, the State Department revised its travel advisory for China, urging Americans to “reconsider” travel to mainland China due to the risk of arbitrary detention and exit bans there.

China’s foreign ministry said the revision was “totally unwarranted” and called on Washington “to remove this stumbling block in China-U.S. people-to-people exchanges.”