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| Imprisoned Chinese pastor John Cao in an undated photo. (Photo: ChinaAid) |
ChinaAid
(Beijing—April 13, 2019) An American pastor serving a life sentence in China is begging his family to secure his release.
David Lin, a Chinese American pastor, was placed under house arrest in China in 2006, when he tried to gain government permission to run a ministry within China. He was subsequently jailed, and authorities then served him a fraud charge in 2009, convicted him, and gave him a life sentence.
For 12 years, Lin was allowed a Bible, and he even started a ministry within the prison. However, his Bible was sent to the United States in December 2018, and, a few months afterward, Lin phoned his family and requested assistance in getting out of the prison.
Lin’s health is deteriorating. To sign a petition for his release, please visit FreePastorLin.com, from which the information in this report that regards Lin was gathered.
His case closely resembles that of North Carolina-based pastor John Cao, who was seized in March 2017 after he attempted to cross the border between China and Myanmar for his ministry, which provided education for minority children in the latter country’s Wa State. Cao had made the crossing many times before with the knowledge of the officials, but they gave him no previous problems, which led experts to believe he was targeted for his faith. He has since been sentenced to seven years in prison on an “organizing illegal border crossings” charge.
Both Lin and Cao’s families are advocating for their relative’s release, and ChinaAid joins them by calling on the U.S. government and other international governing bodies to pressure China to immediately and unconditionally release these men and allow them to return home.
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ChinaAid Media Team
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