Religious freedom is a human right, even in China

David Lin wanted to create a space in China for people to worship as they choose. A pastor from an evangelical Protestant church in California, he became active in the “house church” movement of believers who seek to pray independent of China’s official state church.

For this, he has been wrongfully imprisoned in Beijing for nearly two decades. Secretary of State Antony Blinken should use his visit to China to demand Mr. Lin’s freedom.

The house churches often are made up of people seeking nothing more than quiet places to practice their faith, but at times house church leaders have collided with the state. Mr. Lin was active in the house church movement at the time of his arrest in 2006.

He was working to establish the training center in Beijing when Chinese authorities first questioned him in 2006 and barred him from leaving China. He was detained on Aug. 17, 2007, and subsequently charged with fraud. (Chinese authorities commonly use fraud charges, sometimes related to their collection of offerings, to punish leaders of the house church movement.) According to the Dui Hua Foundation, which seeks to win better conditions and release of Chinese religious and political prisoners through dialogue, Mr. Lin pleaded not guilty but was convicted and sentenced in

December 2009 to life imprisonment. He appealed, but the sentence was upheld in 2010.

In 2012, the sentence was commuted to 19 years and six months, and further reductions were made since. His current prison sentence expires in 2029.

Mr. Lin, now 68 years old, should not spend another day locked up. From prison, he can call his family only twice a month for five minutes each time. He has been deemed a religious prisoner of conscience by the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom and has been designated as wrongfully detained by the U.S. State Department under the Levinson Act.

Mr. Lin is hardly alone — China holds thousands of political and religious prisoners. Mr. Blinken will undoubtedly have a busy agenda in Beijing, but should pause and make time to appeal to China’s leaders to free him. The secretary should have no hesitation telling China’s leaders that Mr. Lin was not engaging in fraud in his effort to worship God outside close state control.

Beliefs and convictions are universal human rights, not a reward to be bestowed or withheld by the Chinese Communist Party and its overweening state.