GARDEN GROVE, Calif.—State Department officials Monday confirmed that a Christian pastor from Garden Grove in Orange County 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 given a life sentence in 2009 after being convicted of contract fraud, a crime frequently used against house church leaders who raise funds, according to The Dui Hua Foundation, a nonprofit that tracks and petitions for the release of religious prisoners in China.

The foundation estimates that there are more than 200 Americans under coercive measures in the country and more under exit bans.

Under the Chinese regime, Christianity is strictly regulated, and worship is allowed to take place only under regime-controlled churches and doctrines. Independent Christians in China are known as house Christians, because they congregate in private homes rather than the state-regulated churches.

Rep. Michelle Steel (R-Calif.) said in a statement, “After two decades of imprisonment by the Chinese Communist Party [CCP] for exercising his faith, I’m overjoyed to hear that Pastor David Lin of Garden Grove will be returning home to his family. Governments like the CCP who engage in religious persecution and wrongfully detain innocent people must face full accountability.'’

Catherine Yang contributed to this report.