An American pastor who had been imprisoned in China for nearly 20 years was released unexpectedly on Sunday and has returned to the United States, according to the State Department.

据美国国务院称，一名关押在中国近20年的美国牧师周日出人意料地获释，并已返回美国。

The pastor, David Lin, 68, was detained in 2006 and later sentenced to life in prison for contract fraud. He had been trying to open a Christian training center in Beijing; his supporters said the Chinese authorities often brought fraud charges against leaders of “house churches” and other religious establishments not controlled by the ruling Communist Party.

这位牧师名叫林大卫，现年68岁，于2006年遭拘捕，后来因合同诈骗罪被判处终身监禁。他一直试图在北京开设一家基督教培训中心；他的支持者表示，中国当局常常对不受执政的共产党控制的“家庭教会”和其他宗教机构的负责人提出诈骗指控。

Mr. Lin was one of three Americans whom the State Department had labeled “wrongfully detained” by China. Generally speaking, that is a designation Washington uses for U.S. citizens who it says were taken hostage to influence American policy. Dui Hua, a U.S.-based human rights group, estimates that more than 200 other Americans are “under coercive measures” in China.

林大卫是美国国务院认定为遭中国“错误羁押”的三名美国人之一。一般说来，这个称呼是华盛顿用来形容那些为了达到影响美国政策的目的而遭到劫持的美国公民。总部位于美国的人权组织对话基金会估计，另有200多名美国人在中国处于“强制措施”之下。

Mr. Lin’s daughter, Alice Lin, told Politico in an interview that “no words can express the joy we have” about his release.

林牧师的女儿爱丽丝在接受Politico采访时表示，对于他的获释，“无法用言语来表达我们的喜悦。”

“We have a lot of time to make up for,” she was quoted as saying.

“我们有很多失去的时间需要弥补，”报道援引她的话说。

In Washington, U.S. officials were conspicuously muted about Mr. Lin’s release, perhaps not wishing to aggravate Chinese officials by making it look as though Beijing had made a major political concession to the United States. Relations with China have been in a relative thaw in recent months after an acrimonious start during President Biden’s tenure.

在华盛顿，美国官员对林牧师的获释表现得相对低调，也许是希望避免让北京看起来像是对美国做出了重大的政治让步，从而激怒中国官员。在拜登总统上任初期，中美关系一度剑拔弩张，在最近几个月里，紧张的气氛有所缓和。

“We welcome his release,” the State Department spokesman, Matthew Miller, said without flourish.

“我们欢迎他的释放，”国务院发言人马修·米勒不动声色地说道。

“Sometimes in diplomacy, the less said, the better,” he added.

“有时候在外交上，说得越少越好，”他补充说。

He noted that Biden administration officials raise the cases of detained Americans during every high-level meeting with Chinese officials.

他指出，在与中方的每次高层会晤中，拜登政府都会提到那些遭到羁押的美国公民的案件。

The United States had repeatedly pressed Beijing to free Mr. Lin, including last month during a visit to China by Jake Sullivan, the White House national security adviser, and a July 27 meeting that Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken held with China’s foreign minister, Wang Yi, on the sidelines of a regional summit in Laos. Since Mr. Lin’s sentencing, the Chinese government had reduced his sentence three times; he had been scheduled for release in 2029 when he was freed.

美国曾多次向北京施压，要求释放林牧师，包括上个月白宫国家安全顾问杰克·沙利文访华期间，以及7月27日国务卿布林肯到老挝参加区域峰会期间与中国外长王毅举行的会晤中。林牧师自获刑以来三次得到中国政府的减刑；原定于2029年获释。

Mr. Miller declined to say whether China had received anything in return for Mr. Lin’s release, noting only that “it’s something that we have been working on for some time.”

米勒拒绝透露中国是否通过释放林牧师获得了好处，仅表示“这是我们在一段时间以来一直在努力的事情”。

The Chinese government has made no public statements about the release. But it has made efforts to stabilize relations with the United States in recent months as China’s economy has struggled. Despite flare-ups over trade restrictions, Taiwan and other issues, Chinese officials have agreed to more military-to-military communications with their American counterparts, and they have taken steps to restrict the flow of fentanyl into the United States.

中国政府尚未就此发表公开声明。但随着中国经济陷入困境，近几个月来，它一直在努力稳定与美国的关系。尽管双方在贸易限制、台湾和其他问题上发生了冲突，但中方已同意与美方增加军事方面的交流，并采取措施限制芬太尼流入美国。

“China is looking for ways to be perceived as less confrontational in some ways,” said Kevin Slaten, a Taiwan-based researcher who leads China Dissent Monitor, a project that tracks protest in the country. “Prisoner releases would certainly align with these efforts.”

“中国正在想方设法让外界觉得它在某些方面并不是那么有对抗性，”驻台湾的研究者史凯文(Kevin Slaten)说道，他也是追踪中国抗议活动的异言网的负责人。“释放囚犯无疑与这些努力相一致。”

“China detains so many thousands of political prisoners that it is a small cost for the party-state to release a few people if it thinks it can gain some diplomatic good will,” Mr. Slaten added.

史凯文还表示，“中国关押了成千上万的政治犯，如果这个党国认为能获得一些外交善意，那么释放几个人对它来说只是很小的成本。”

Mr. Lin, a naturalized American citizen who was born in China, was living in California when he began making frequent trips to China in the 1990s, trying to convert others to Christianity, according to ChinaAid, a U.S.-based Christian activist organization.

据美国基督教活动组织对华援助协会称，林牧师是出生在中国的归化美国公民，从上世纪90年代开始频繁前往中国，试图说服人们皈依基督教，当时他住在加利福尼亚州。

China’s political environment at the time was looser, as the country tried to project openness to build its economy. But the Communist Party has always been wary of organized religion, which it sees as a potential threat to its control. During the run-up to the Beijing Olympics in 2008, the government cracked down, expelling over 100 foreign missionaries from China by the end of 2007, according to congressional testimony by Bob Fu, the founder of ChinaAid.

中国当时的政治环境较为宽松，因为它试图通过展现开放来建设经济。但中共始终对有组织的宗教持谨慎态度，认为有可能威胁到它的统治。在2008年北京奥运会前夕，政府加大了打压力度，根据对华援助协会创办人傅希秋在国会的证词，截止2007年底，中国将100多名外国传教士驱逐出境。

Mr. Lin was initially detained for helping to construct a building for a house church. He was later charged with contract fraud.

林牧师最初因帮助家庭教会盖一座教堂而遭羁押。他后来被指控犯有合同诈骗罪。

In prison in Beijing, Mr. Lin ministered to fellow inmates and translated the Bible into Chinese, according to the U.S. government’s Commission on International Religious Freedom. But his health was said to be declining.

据美国政府的国际宗教自由委员会称，在北京的监狱里，林牧师成为了狱友们的牧师，并将《圣经》翻译成中文。但他的健康状况据说在恶化。

Family members of Mr. Lin had said that Washington was moving too slowly on his case. “We don’t know how much time either of us has left,” Alice Lin wrote in a letter to The Wall Street Journal in April. “He is elderly now, and I have cancer. We can’t afford to wait.” She called on senior diplomats to prioritize her father’s freedom when they traveled to China.

林牧师的家人表示，华盛顿在处理他的案子上进展太缓慢。“我们不知道我们俩还剩下多少时间，”爱丽丝在4月份给《华尔街日报》的一封信中写道。“他现在年纪大了，而我得了癌症。我们等不起了。”她呼吁高级外交官在访问中国时优先考虑她父亲的自由问题。

Beijing has continued to crack down on Christians and other believers. Since June 2022, China Dissent Monitor has documented 36 cases of the government targeting Christians for peacefully practicing their beliefs, with raids, arrests, surveillance and other methods, Mr. Slaten said.

北京继续对基督徒和其他信仰者进行打压。史凯文指出，自2022年6月以来，异言网记录到36宗政府针对和平实践信仰的基督徒的案件，采取的手段包括突袭、逮捕、监视及其他方式。

The other two Americans whom the State Department considers wrongfully detained are Kai Li and Mark Swidan. Mr. Li, a businessman from New York, has been held in China since 2016 on espionage charges, and Mr. Swidan, a Texas businessman, since 2012 on drug-related charges. The State Department has warned Americans to “reconsider travel” to China because of the risk of wrongful detentions and “arbitrary enforcement of local laws.”

被国务院认定为错误羁押的另外两名美国人是李凯和马克·斯威丹。来自纽约的商人李凯因间谍指控自2016年以来被关押在中国，而得克萨斯州商人斯威丹因与毒品有关的指控自2012年以来被关押。国务院一直警告美国民众“慎重考虑”前往中国旅行，因为可能存在错误羁押和“随意执行当地法律”的风险。

In a statement, Diane Foley, whose son James was kidnapped and murdered in Syria a decade ago and who runs a foundation dedicated to the plight of Americans detained abroad, called Mr. Lin’s release “an encouraging sign.” She added that it had been three years since China last released wrongfully detained Americans.

黛安·福利的儿子詹姆斯于十年前在叙利亚遭绑架后遇害，她运营着一个致力于关注被拘留在国外的美国人的基金会。她在一份声明中称，林牧师的获释是“一个令人鼓舞的迹象”。她还说，距离中国上一次释放遭错误羁押的美国人已经过去了三年时间。

The James W. Foley Foundation statement noted that China “holds at least 11 other Americans captive in prison or is blocking them from leaving the country using exit bans” and that “these Americans have been held, on average, over eight years.”

詹姆斯·W·福利基金会的声明指出，中国“至少还关押着另外11名美国人，或者利用出境禁令阻止他们离境”，并且“这些美国人平均被关押了八年以上”。

It said that Ms. Foley hoped that Mr. Lin’s case could “serve as a model for further dialogue and negotiation” to win the release of all Americans in China.

声明称，福利希望林牧师的案子能“成为进一步对话和谈判的典范”，以争取释放所有关押在中国的美国人。

But Mr. Lin’s release will do little to change the overall tenor of the two countries’ relationship, said Drew Thompson, a former Defense Department official who is now a senior fellow at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore.

然而，前国防部官员、现任新加坡南洋理工大学高级研究员的德鲁·汤普森表示，林牧师的释放对两国关系的整体基调影响不大。

“Releasing an individual who’s been in jail for almost 20 years is not exactly a concession that would get to the heart of United States concerns about China’s governance,” he said.

“释放一个在牢里被关了近20年的人，并不能算作一个触及美国对中国治理方式的核心担忧的让步，”他说。