State Department officials on Monday confirmed that a Christian pastor from Garden Grove has been released from a prison in China and is back in the United States for the first time in nearly two decades.

“We welcome David Lin’s release from prison in the People’s Republic of China,” State Department spokesman Matthew Miller told reporters Monday. “He has returned to the United States and now gets to see his family for the
first time in nearly 20 years.”

Miller did not provide many details about what prompted the release of Lin. He did say that Secretary of State Antony Blinken has been raising the issue consistently and that he met with Chinese officials in July.

“It’s something we’ve been working on for some time,” Miller said. “I’ll leave it at that.”

The 68-year-old Lin was detained in 2006 in China where he was reportedly convicted of contract fraud and was sentenced to a life term in prison.