Chinese Regime Releases Jailed US Citizen After Nearly 20 Years

The Chinese regime has released David Lin, a U.S. citizen and pastor who was on a missionary trip to China and helping a group of house Christians when he was arrested in 2006. In 2009, he was sentenced to life in prison.
“We welcome David Lin’s release from prison in the People’s Republic of China,” a State Department spokesperson told The Epoch Times. “He has returned to the United States and now gets to see his family for the first time in nearly 20 years.”
Last year, U.S. Ambassador to China Nicholas Burns was able to meet with three U.S. citizens who, according to the United States, have been wrongfully detained by China. He met with businessman Kai Li, jailed on charges of spying; Mark Swidan, a Texas-based businessman who was given the death penalty on drug charges; and Lin.
Lin’s family has been campaigning for his release for years, and shortly before President Joe Biden met with Chinese leader Xi Jinping in 2022, Lin’s life sentence was reduced to 24 years.
According to the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF), Lin was, until 2019, translating the Bible into Chinese and ministering to his fellow prisoners but had stopped; at the same time, reports emerged of Lin’s declining health and concerns for his safety.