After almost 20 years in prison, the Chinese Government released a pastor representing an Orange County-based Evangelical Church abroad and allowed him to return to the U.S.
David Lin, 68, a member of the Evangelical Formosan Church of Orange County , had been traveling to China frequently since the 1990s to do ministry work.
According to China Aid , a U.S.-based advocacy group for persecuted activists in China, Lin applied for a license to advance the Christian faith in the country but was likely denied and subsequently detained in 2006 while working with an unauthorized church in China.
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Lin was convicted in 2009 and sentenced to a life term for contract fraud, charges Lin denied.
Although he had been slated to be released by 2030, efforts by evangelical groups and the State Department intensified amid reports that Lin was in failing health.