Beijing releases long-jailed US citizen

The Chinese government has released 68-year-old Orange County resident David Lin, who has been behind bars since 2006 serving a life sentence for what the U.S. government says are bogus charges of contract fraud.

Lin’s daughter, Alice Lin, confirmed to POLITICO that the State Department notified her on Saturday that Chinese authorities had released her father from prison and that he would be touching down in San Antonio, Texas, sometime Sunday. “No words can express the joy we have — we have a lot of time to make up for,” said the younger Lin, who was on her way to meet her father at the airport.

A National Security Council spokesperson unauthorized to speak on the record about Lin's return said the Biden administration welcomed Lin's release. Lin "now gets to see his family for the first time in nearly 20 years," the spokesperson said in a statement. The Chinese embassy declined to comment.

The release of Lin — who is one of three U.S. citizens that the State Department considered to be unjustly jailed in China — marks a breakthrough in a longstanding bilateral irritant that has defied resolution for years. "The Chinese first agreed to release him in a meeting between Secretary of State [Antony] Blinken and [Chinese Foreign Minister] Wang Yi in Laos" in July in a meeting on the sidelines of an ASEAN-related ministerial meeting , said a U.S. official familiar familiar with those discussions and granted anonymity because they aren't authorized to speak on record about sensitive diplomatic negotiations.

The timing of Lin's release — just weeks after national security adviser Jake Sullivan’s meetings with Wang in Beijing — suggests that Sullivan also played a role in bringing Lin home.

“I know that Jake Sullivan did raise my dad’s case,” Lin's daughter said.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom unsuccessfully pressed for Lin’s release when he visited China in October. Newsom came home with the message from Chinese authorities that Lin would remain behind bars “through April 2029.”

Lin's return home Sunday reflects years of intense diplomacy by the State Department's Office of the Special Presidential Envoy for Hostage Affairs and the California-based nonprofit prisoner release advocacy organization Dui Hua Foundation. "I have told the Chinese government over and over that if you want to improve relations with the United States, release American prisoners — I think they got the message, said Dui Hua founder John Kamm.

The release comes just days ahead of a congressional hearing on Capitol Hill focused on arbitrarily detained U.S. citizens in China.

And it will raise hopes that talks are underway to free the other two Americans — Mark Swidan and Kai Li — that the State Department considers unjustly jailed. "Our hope is that David's release creates the space for additional diplomacy" to free Swidan and Li, the U.S. official said.