President Joe Biden’s administration brokered a deal with China to secure the release of David Lin, a U.S. citizen and pastor who spent almost 20 years in custody until his release last month, Politico reported.
Lin, 68, was released in mid-September after first being detained by China in 2006 on charges of contract fraud for which he was given a life sentence. Lin’s family denied the charges, as did the State Department, which listed Lin as one of three American citizens who were “wrongfully detained” by China.
The State Department has not publicly confirmed the details of Lin’s release, which reportedly came as an exchange for a Chinese national according to three sources with knowledge of the deal who spoke with Politico. The State Department, White House, and Chinese Embassy all declined to comment on the matter.
“No words can express the joy we have — we have a lot of time to make up for,” Lin’s daughter, Alice Lin, said upon her father’s release.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom previously raised the issue of Lin’s release during a trip to China last October but was told at the time by Chinese authorities that Lin would remain in prison “through April 2029.”
John Kamm, the founder of the Dui Hua Foundation, a nonprofit group that advocates for prisoner releases, said that prisoner exchanges “aren’t in China’s DNA. I can’t think of a single example in my 50 years of doing this where they have released [an American citizen] as part of a swap.”