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An American pastor held by China since 2006 on what Washington has described as spurious charges has been freed after 18 years in prison, a U.S.-based rights group said on Sunday.
David Lin, 68, was released from Beijing No. 2 Prison on Sept. 15, where he had been serving a jail term for "contract fraud," a charge frequently used to target the leaders of unofficial Protestant "house churches," the Duihua Foundation said in a statement on its website.
Lin, who had been helping to plant churches in China at the time of his detention in 2006, later had the sentence reduced several times, but hadn't been scheduled for release until 2029.
Lin was among several people whose families have been lobbying U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken to push for their release. He had been on a priority list of three U.S. citizens, alongside Mark Swidan – sentenced to death in 2019 on drug charges – and Kai Li, listed as "wrongfully detained" in China by the State Department.
Family members say their loved ones have been behind bars in China for years, often with little consular support or contact, Reuters reported in 2023.
"We welcome the release of #DavidLin after 18 years of unjust detention and hope more releases are forthcoming," the Congressional-Executive Commission on China said in comments posted Monday on X. "The People's Republic of China wrongfully detains more Americans than any other country."
It said the commission was scheduled to hold a hearing this week that would highlight other cases including those of Kai Li, Nelson Wells and Dawn Hunt.
Tight control
The Chinese Communist Party, which embraces atheism, exercises tight controls over any form of religious practice among its citizens. The country is home to an estimated 72 million Christians, including Protestants and Catholics, according to Pew Research.
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Churches are allowed to function if they are part of the government-backed Three-Self Patriotic Association. The three “selfs” refer to self-governance, self-support and self-propagation – essentially rejecting any foreign influence – and the “patriotic” refers to loyalty to the Chinese government.
China has many unauthorized "house churches" across the country, which are frequently raided by authorities, and some "Three-Self" churches have also been targeted at times, too.
Desire to ease tensions?
Political commentator Zheng Shengqi said the timing of Lin's release comes after "China Week" in the U.S. House of Representatives, which saw the passage of 24 China-related bills in the space of a week, all of which are unfavorable to Beijing.
"The fact that they let David Lin out at this point shows that the efforts of the Biden administration to return U.S. hostages overseas have been effective," Zheng said. "It also shows China's willingness to ease Sino-U.S. tensions."
Bob Fu, who heads the U.S.-based Christian rights group ChinaAid, said Lin's release wouldn't be enough to demonstrate a change of heart towards Christians in Beijing, however.
"I would like to remind people ... that the Chinese Communist Party entrapped David Lin and held him in prison for 18 years, turning him into a hostage for use in negotiations between the U.S. and China," Fu said.
He warned American Christians not to travel to China unless absolutely necessary.
The State Department welcomed Lin's release in comments quoted by several news organizations on Sunday.
"We welcome David Lin’s release from prison in the People’s Republic of China,” a State Department spokesperson said, adding that Lin "has returned to the United States and now gets to see his family for the first time in nearly 20 years."
Targeting church leaders
A lawyer who has defended Chinese Christians and gave only the surname Qi for fear of reprisals said the Chinese authorities frequently target church leaders with "fraud" and "illegal business operations" charges.
"How can a pastor commit fraud? It's usually claimed in connection with donations or fund-raising operations," Qi said. "If you handle the money, they can say it's fraud."
According to Qi, the crackdown on religious activities has gotten worse under ruling Chinese Communist Party leader Xi Jinping, whose campaign to "sinicize" religious practice has seen much tougher controls on religious groups of all kinds.
A pastor of a house church in the eastern province of Anhui who gave only the surname Zhou for fear of reprisals said he had heard about David Lin's arrest at the time, although the authorities had managed to stop the case from making the headlines.
Zhou agreed that controls are far stricter these days.
"The [state security police] are watching us much more closely," Zhou said. "They even come and ask me where I'm going when I buy a ticket to go to Beijing."
He said there is ever-growing pressure on China's unofficial house churches to join the government-backed Three-Self Association. But he said his church would never give in to such pressure.
"That's not going to happen," he said. "[Three-Self churches] have to sing the national anthem and raise the national flag under [government] control."
"[The police] are now under a lot of pressure from higher up, so they are carrying out these orders," Zhou said.
Translated by Luisetta Mudie. Edited by Roseanne Gerin Malcolm Foster.