In China, the Mid-Autumn Festival is a time for families to reunite and express gratitude. It’s similar to Thanksgiving in America. David Lin, a Chinese-American minister, will have a lot to be grateful for this year when the holiday is celebrated on Tuesday. Beijing released the 68-year-old Chinese-American pastor David Lin on Sunday, after nearly 20 years of imprisonment in a case that the U.S. Government and his family had always dismissed as unfounded.
Lin entered China in 2006. He attempted to set up a Christian training center in Beijing. China’s Communist Party is against such activities and regularly evicts underground Christian churches that it views as a danger to its power. Only officially sanctioned, closely monitored churches are permitted under the Communist Party’s rule.
Lin was arrested the year after he arrived and then sentenced to life imprisonment in 2009, following his conviction for fraud. According to the Dui Hua Foundation, this charge is frequently used against home church leaders who try to raise funds for expansion.
The U.S. State Department confirmed Lin’s release on Sunday. The Chinese government made no public comments on Lin’s release over the long weekend.
Bring Our Families Home posted on Facebook in April a message that was attributed to Alice, Lin’s daughter. Alice said she had been recently diagnosed with cancer, and given the age of her father, “we don’t have much time left.” She also added: “We cannot afford to wait.”
“We don’t know how much time either of us has left. [My father’s] sentence was reduced to 24 years, but he is elderly now, and I have cancer. We can’t afford to wait.”
Alice Lin on her dad, David Lin, the “forgotten U.S. citizen” detained since 2006.https://t.co/7flRWe0yTC pic.twitter.com/9z3YOwcfNO
— Bring Our Families Home Campaign (@BOFHcampaign) April 19, 2024
This was long overdue. John Kamm said that many people, from different administrations, worked on it over the years.
Since Lin was imprisoned in China, the group has continued to push for his release. They have sent more than 30 questions to Beijing. “We have had members of Congress there. You had Governor Newsom (of California) bring it up to the Chinese government. “But, you know, honestly, I believe the person who gets most credit is David Lin’s daughter.”
Lin missed the wedding of his daughter Alice and the birth of his grandson while he was in jail. She wrote in April a letter that was published by The Wall Street Journal. In it, she said she had a dream of her father meeting “my husband and my eight-year-old child for the first time.”
Alice, as quoted by Politico Sunday, said: “No words could express the joy that we feel. We have a lot of lost time to make up for.”
Lin was released nearly three weeks following a trip to Beijing in late August by U.S. national security adviser Jake Sullivan, who met with Wang Yi, the Foreign Minister.
Kamm said that he had “begun to see signs two to three weeks ago” that something like this could happen. He added that his “first response was to tell Alice.”
According to the Dui Hua Foundation, more than 200 U.S. citizens are still held in China. Family members of three of those Americans — Dawn Michelle Hunt, Kai Li, and Nelson Wells — are scheduled to give testimony at a Wednesday hearing of the Congressional-Executive Commission on China, which focuses on detained U.S. citizens.
Kamm said that Mr. Kai Li had suffered a stroke, and Nelson Wells had serious medical problems. Mark Swidan is a Texas-based businessman who is currently on death row for drug trafficking in China. He also said that he was “quite ill.”
Katherine Swidan, Swidan’s mother, said in April she was afraid he would take his life after spending more than 10 years behind bars.
Margaret Brennan, the moderator of “Face the Nation”, said: “We are very worried and afraid that Mark may end his life.” She told Margaret Brennan, “We are very concerned and afraid that Mark will end his life.” This was after the U.S.
In China, all forms of early release from prison require court approval, except medical parole.
“It doesn’t have to be approved by the court. It can be approved by the prison. So, I’m hoping that the prison in each case will take some mercy — they’ve suffered long enough — and release them on humanitarian grounds,” he said.
