新闻来源：www.abcnews.go.com
原文地址：An American pastor detained in China for nearly 20 years has been released
新闻日期：2024-09-16
中国扣留美籍牧师达19年终于获释回国
美国牧师David Lin在2006年进入中国后被拘留，2009年因合同诈骗被判无期徒刑。他已在华羁押近20年。
周日晚上，林的女儿Alice Lin通过短信通知支持者Bob Fu：「Praise God!我们昨天晚上收到消息！爸爸已获释正在越过阿拉斯加。」
美国国务院表示：「我们欢迎David Lin从中国释放。他现已成为自由身，并将首次在近20年后与家人团聚。」
林牧师长期活跃在中国，他的妻子说他曾多次以传道为名前往中国，但后来被逮捕。中国方面将其定为“合同诈骗”，判处无期徒刑。
美国国务院、人权组织和牧师支持者们一直呼吁释放林牧师。
星期三，一场国会听证会将讨论仍被中国扣留的美国公民的情况。
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原文摘要：
A Christian pastor from California has been freed from China after nearly 20 years behind bars and is back home in the U.S., the State Department said Monday.
David Lin, 68, was detained after he entered China in 2006, later convicted of contract fraud and sentenced to life in prison, according to the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom and advocacy groups.
“Praise God! We got the call late last night!!! Dad is free and over Alaska now,” the pastor’s daughter, Alice Lin, said by text message Sunday to Bob Fu, a longtime supporter and the founder of China Aid, an U.S.-based advocacy group for persecuted activists in China. Fu shared with The Associated Press a screenshot of the text sent before the Lins reunited.
The Biden administration has been working on David Lin’s case and those of other wrongly detained Americans in China for years and have raised them at every meeting with senior Chinese officials, including Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s meeting this summer with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi in Laos. Such meetings aim to keep communication open between Washington and Beijing despite escalating tensions.
“We welcome David Lin’s release from prison in the People’s Republic of China. He has returned to the United States and now gets to see his family for the first time in nearly 20 years,” the State Department said.
Lin frequently traveled to China in the 1990s to spread the gospel, according to China Aid, which says Lin sought a license from the Chinese government to carry out Christian ministry. It’s unlikely he was granted permission, and he was detained in 2006 when assisting a church not authorized by Chinese officials, the group said.
Lin was formally arrested in 2009 on suspicion of contract fraud and, after a court review, was sentenced to life in prison, China Aid said.
The charge is frequently used against leaders of churches that operate outside state-sponsored faith groups, and it is a crime that Lin denied, according to the Dui Hua Foundation, a humanitarian group that advocates for prisoners in China. The commission on religious freedom says those leading and taking part in churches not sanctioned by the Chinese government “often face intimidation, harassment, arrest and harsh sentences.”
In China, all Christian churches must pledge loyalty to the ruling Communist Party and register with the government. Any unregistered congregation is considered an underground church whose activities are illegal in China. Beijing has always cracked down on “unlawful preaching,” and efforts have only intensified in the past decade.
Lin’s sentence had been reduced and he had been due for release in April 2030. The commission on religious freedom noted in 2019 that there were reports Lin was in declining health and faced possible threats to his safety in prison.
The Chinese foreign ministry didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment about Lin’s release.
Other Americans known to remain detained in China include Kai Li, a businessman who is being held on espionage-related charges that his family says are bogus, and Mark Swidan, who was sentenced on drug charges. The State Department’s office of the special presidential envoy on hostage affairs has designated the two as “wrongful detainees,” a label given to Americans jailed in foreign countries for what the U.S. government considers legally specious allegations or for improper motivations.
Nelson Wells Jr. and Dawn Michelle Hunt also are incarcerated in China over drug-related charges, and their families, along with Li’s son, will be among those speaking at a congressional hearing Wednesday about Americans held in China.
Rep. Michael McCaul, the Texas Republican who chairs the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said he was “extremely glad” Lin was released after 17 years behind bars and called for Li and Swidan to be freed immediately.
Lin’s “capture, like so many others, marks a rising trend of hostage diplomacy by authoritarians around the world,” McCaul said on the social platform X.
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Associated Press writers Courtney Bonnell and Matthew Lee contributed from Washington.
