(CP) California Pastor David Lin has been released from a Chinese prison after nearly two decades and has returned to the United States, the State Department said Sunday, ending a case that sparked an international outcry from free speech advocates and U.S. officials who say he was wrongfully detained.

"We welcome David Lin's release from prison in the People's Republic of China," the State Department said, Politico reported, adding that the 68-year-old pastor "now gets to see his family for the first time in nearly 20 years."

Lin's daughter, Alice Lin, told the outlet that the State Department notified her on Saturday that Chinese authorities had released her father from prison and that he would arrive in San Antonio, Texas, on Sunday.

"No words can express the joy we have — we have a lot of time to make up for," she said.

Lin, a U.S. citizen, was working to establish a Christian training centre in Beijing in 2006 when he was first questioned by Chinese authorities and barred from leaving the country. He was later detained and charged with fraud under unclear circumstances. In December 2009, Lin was sentenced to life imprisonment. He has denied all charges. After several sentence reductions, he was set to be released in 2029.

Lin was active in China's underground house church movement, which involves discreet religious gatherings often held in private homes and not connected to state-sponsored religious organizations. The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom has noted that this movement "has long faced hostility from Chinese authorities" and participants often face "intimidation, harassment, arrest, and harsh sentences."

Although Lin has staunchly maintained his innocence, he did not raise the attention of his case because he felt as though his imprisonment was a God-ordained mission field, his daughter said in a 2019 interview on the Washington Watch radio programme.

She added that her father told the family that officials forged documents and even tried to get him to sign a confession — something he would not do because he "didn't do anything wrong."

"What we do know is that he was in China because he had this huge burden for the unchurched in China. He had the vision to build a church and a Christian training centre," she explained, adding that he was imprisoned because of his faith. "His last message to us as a free man ... he told us, 'Don't worry, God knows what He is doing. It is God's wish that I am here. There are many people inside that need to hear God's Word. Please don't worry, but only pray for me. I will be back in the U.S. soon.' That was 10 years ago."

Several U.S. politicians voiced their support for Lin on Sunday and called for the release of other Americans detained abroad.

"I am extremely glad to hear David Lin was freed," Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Texas, said Sunday in a statement posted on X. "His capture, like so many others, marks a rising trend of hostage diplomacy by authoritarians around the world."

The Dui Hua Foundation, a California-based nonprofit advocating for detainees in China, welcomed Lin's release but said there are more than 200 Americans "under coercive measures" in China, including 30 who are barred from leaving the country.

China ranks as one of the worst countries in the world when it comes to Christian persecution, according to Open Doors USA's World Watch List. China's crackdown on nongovernment-sanctioned house churches over the last several years has led to the arrest of countless worshipers and the destruction of churches, along with stringent regulations and enhanced digital surveillance specifically targeting house churches.

ChinaAid President Bob Fu previously told The Christian Post that "the top leadership is increasingly worried about the rapid growth of the Christian faith and their public presence, and their social influence. It is a political fear for the Communist Party, as the number of Christians in the country far outnumber the members of the party."

China's government wants to "Sinicize" religion, meaning it wants to promote and guide religion that is Chinese in orientation, he said.

In March, Beijing freed Pastor John Cao, who was sentenced to seven years in prison on charges of "organizing illegal border crossing." Authorities had arrested Cao and his colleague, Jing Ruxia, in March 2017 and charged him with illegally crossing the border between Myanmar and China.

Before crossing the border, Cao, from North Carolina, built 16 schools that serve 2,000 impoverished minority children in Myanmar's northern Wa state.

In August, a court in Guiyang, the capital of Guizhou Province in China, sentenced Elder Zhang Chunlei of a house church to five years in prison for "subversion of state power" and "fraud." The sentencing reportedly occurred in a closely regulated proceeding that limited public attendance.

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