China releases David Lin, American pastor who the US government says was wrongly detained for 18 years

In China, the Mid-Autumn Festival is typically a time for families to gather and give thanks, much like Thanksgiving in the United States. This year, Chinese-American pastor David Lin will have something to be thankful for when the holiday is celebrated Tuesday. In a surprise move, Beijing on Sunday released the 68-year-old, who had spent nearly 20 years in prison in a case that the U.S. government and his family have always said is baseless.

Lin arrived in China in 2006 and attempted to establish a Christian training center in Beijing. ChinaThe Communist Party disapproves of such activities and systematically eradicates underground Christian churches, considering them a threat to its power. Only officially authorized and closely monitored churches are permitted under Communist Party rule.

Lin was arrested the year he arrived and sentenced to life in prison in 2009 after being convicted of fraud, a charge often leveled against local church leaders trying to raise funds for expansion, according to the Dui Hua Foundation, a human rights group.

The U.S. State Department, which has consistently maintained that Lin was wrongly detained by Chinaconfirmed his release on Sunday. The Chinese government has not made any public comment on Lin’s release over the long holiday weekend.

Campaign group Bring Our Families Home posted a message on social media in April attributed to Lin’s daughter Alice, in which she was quoted as saying she had been diagnosed with cancer and that “we don’t know how much time we both have left” given her father’s age, and adding: “We can’t afford to wait.”

“It’s been a long time coming. A lot of people have worked on this project over the years, under different administrations,” John Kamm, executive director of the Dui Hua Foundation, told CBS News.

The group has helped push for Lin’s release, submitting more than 30 petitions to Beijing since China detained the California resident. “We’ve had members of Congress there. [California] Governor Newsom has raised this issue with the Chinese government. But you know, frankly, I think the person who deserves the most credit is David Lin’s daughter.

While in detention, Lin missed her daughter Alice’s wedding and the birth of her grandson. In April, she wrote a letter, published by the Wall Street Journal, in which she explained that she dreamed of her father “meeting my husband and 8-year-old son for the first time.”

“No words can express the joy we feel,” Alice said, as quoted by Politico on Sunday. “We have a lot of catching up to do.”

Lin’s release comes nearly three weeks after a visit to Beijing by U.S. national security adviser Jake Sullivan in late August, during which he met with Foreign Minister Wang Yi.

“I started getting indications two or three weeks ago that this might happen,” Kamm said, adding that his “first reaction was to tell Alice.”

According to the Dui Hua Foundation, more than 200 other Americans remain detained in China. Family members of three of them — Dawn Michelle Hunt, Kai Li and Nelson Wells — are scheduled to testify Wednesday at a hearing of the Congressional-Executive Commission on China, which focuses on detained U.S. citizens.

“Mr. Kai Li had a stroke and Nelson Wells has serious health problems,” Kamm said. He added that another American, Mark Swidan, a Texas businessman currently on death row in China for alleged drug trafficking, “is very ill.”

Katherine, Swidan’s mother told CBS News in April that she feared he would commit suicide after more than a decade behind bars.

“We are very concerned and afraid that Mark will end his life,” she told “Face the Nation” moderator Margaret Brennan after U.S. Ambassador to China Nicholas Burns visited her son in prison, adding an urgent plea to President Biden to secure his release.

In China, all forms of early release from prison require court approval, except for medical parole, he added.

“It is not necessary for the court to approve this decision. It can be approved by the prison. So I hope that in each case the prison will show clemency – they have suffered enough – and release them on humanitarian grounds,” he said.