After 18 years of being detained by the Chinese Communist Party, Orange County Christian pastor David Lin was finally released and returned to the United States on September 17. In 2006, he was detained for “engaging in unauthorized religious activities in China,” and in 2009, he was sentenced to life in prison on charges of “contract fraud.”
On September 16, U.S. State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said at a press briefing, “We are pleased to see David Lin released from China and welcome him back to the United States, where he reunited with his family for the first time in nearly 20 years.”
“This is an important step forward for us,” Miller mentioned that every time U.S. Secretary of State Blinken meets with Chinese officials, the cases of David Lin and other wrongfully detained Americans are raised, whether the meetings take place in the U.S., China, or elsewhere. Blinken and Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi last met in July in Laos.
Lin’s daughter, Alice Lin, sent a text message to Bob Fu, the founder and chairman of China Aid, saying, “Thank God! We received a call late last night that Dad is now free!” Fu shared the screenshot of the text message with the Associated Press.
Born in China and later immigrating to the U.S., 68-year-old David Lin obtained citizenship. He converted to Christianity in the U.S. and served as a pastor at the Evangelical Formosan Church in Orange County. According to China Aid, Lin had been traveling to China frequently after 1990 and had applied to the Chinese authorities for permission to engage in Christian ministry work. In 2006, he was detained while assisting an unauthorized church activity.
In China, all Christian churches are required to pledge allegiance to the Communist Party of China, obtain permits, and register with the government. Any unregistered churches are considered underground, and their activities are deemed illegal by the CCP. Over the past decade, the CCP has been cracking down on “illegal evangelism.”
According to the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, those who lead or participate in unauthorized churches “often face intimidation, harassment, arrests, and harsh sentences.” Lin was originally sentenced to prison until April 2030, but his health significantly deteriorated in 2019. His daughter mentioned that he lost at least 5 teeth while in prison.
“We will continue to push for the release of other wrongfully detained Americans,” Miller also mentioned Mark Swidan and Kai Li, but did not disclose the total number of Americans wrongfully detained by the Chinese authorities.
Swidan was arrested in November 2012 at a hotel in Dongguan while having a conversation with his family. He was accused of drug trafficking while purchasing flooring and other materials in China, and was sentenced to death in 2019, with the Guangdong court upholding the sentence in 2023.
Swidan suffered abuse in prison, and John Kamm, the chairman of the Dui Hua Foundation, wrote to the Chinese authorities 40 times about it. He stated, “There’s no forensic evidence – no fingerprints, no DNA, no drugs in his system,” “No emails, no phone records, etc. I am convinced Mr. Swidan is innocent.”
Kai Li, born in Shanghai in 1962, came to the U.S. for study and obtained citizenship in 1989. He owned two gas stations and a business trading solar panels and related technology with an American aerospace company; he commuted between the U.S. and China several times a year.
In the summer of 2016, Kai Li was taken away by Chinese State Security personnel upon arrival in Shanghai for his mother’s one-year memorial service. He was accused of stealing state secrets and sentenced to 10 years in prison. Li’s lawyer stated that these “state secrets” were freely available on the Chinese internet.
On September 18, the families of Kai Li, Mark Swidan, Dawn Michelle Hunt, and Nelson Wells Jr. attended a hearing at the Congressional-Executive Commission of China in Congress, sharing the pain their loved ones endured and urging the U.S. government to take action to bring them back home.
According to the commission’s data, there are more Americans detained in China than in any other country. Chris Smith, the chairman of the committee and a Republican congressman from New Jersey, said, “American human rights are being violated recklessly.”
Harrison Li, Kai Li’s son, spoke out, saying that his father had suffered a stroke and lost a tooth, “Waking up every day, thinking about him and 7 to 11 others cramped in a small cell without air conditioning, unable to sleep due to the heat, experiencing mental and physical anguish, I shudder,” “I want to ask the president, how much longer does he have to suffer?”
Chicago retired police officer Tim Hunt appealed for his sister, saying, “She thought she won a contest and went to Hong Kong, only to be taken to the mainland of China. They gave her some designer handbags, not knowing drugs were hidden in the lining.” In 2014, his sister was charged with possession and smuggling of drugs.
In May 2014, Nelson Wells Jr. traveled from Japan to China for medical treatment after a head injury from a car accident; he was accused of drug possession and smuggling upon leaving Chongqing and sentenced to life in prison.