By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent Worthy News
BEIJING/WASHINGTON (Worthy News) – An American pastor who spent 18 years in a Chinese prison on what Washington called “bogus charges of contract fraud” was released last month in exchange for a Chinese citizen in U.S. custody, several sources said Thursday.
David Lin, a 68-year-old naturalized U.S. citizen, was freed on September 15, nearly two decades after returning to his country of birth in 2006.
He had been applying for permission from the Chinese government to open a Christian church building in the Communist-run nation.
But he was detained shortly afterward and handed a life sentence in 2009 “for contract fraud,” a charge Lin and his family deny.
After years of secret talks, Beijing and Washington agreed to the prisoners’ swap.
The U.S. State Department hasn’t publicly disclosed that it exchanged Lin for a Chinese national and declined to answer questions about how it negotiated his freedom.
It also coincides with the Biden administration’s reported efforts to free Mark Swidan and Kai Li, two other Americans behind bars in China, whom the State Department considers “wrongfully detained.”
QUESTIONS UNANSWERED
The State Department, the White House, and the Chinese Embassy in Washington declined to comment.
However, “Such exchanges “aren’t in China’s DNA,” said John Kamm, founder of the nonprofit prisoner release advocacy organization Dui Hua Foundation. Besides Lin, “I can’t think of a single example in my 50 years of doing this where they have released [a U.S. citizen] as part of a swap,” Kamm added.
For Lin, a new life has begun. “No words can express the joy we have — we have a lot of time to make up for,” his daughter, Alice Lin, said recently.
However, family members of other Americans still held by Beijing now hope their loved ones will return as well.
They have questioned the Biden administration’s slow, “quiet diplomacy” approach, which they say will take years.
China has become known for detaining foreigners on what Western nations view as trumped-up charges.
In 2021, China detained two Canadian citizens, Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor, on controversial spying charges. It was part of a negotiating ploy to win the release of Meng Wanzhou, chief financial officer of Chinese telecom equipment giant Huawei, from house arrest in Canada in 2021.
Copyright 1999-2025 Worthy News. This article was originally published on Worthy News and was reproduced with permission.
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