68-year-old David Lin, a naturalized US citizen, had gone back to the country of his birth in 2006, after applying for permission from the Chinese government to open a Christian church building there.
But he was detained shortly afterwards and was handed a life sentence in 2009 for contract fraud, a charge Lin and his family deny.
According to the Dui Hua Foundation, a U.S.-based human rights advocacy group, Lin's sentence had been reduced several times since 2012. And prior to the most recent reduction, he was set to be released in December 2029.
The State Department considers Lin as "wrongfully detained" in China and said it “welcomed” his release from the Chinese prison.
"He has returned to the United States and now gets to see his family for the first time in nearly 20 years," it says in a statement shared with NPR.
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