(Minghui.org) Two residents of Xichang City, Sichuan Province, had their pensions suspended for four months and were then given only a portion of their retirement benefits beginning in February 2025. They both filed requests for administrative reconsideration of their cases, which the relevant agency has agreed to hear.
The pension situation of Ms. Xia Huiqiong, 70, and Ms. Guo Bing, 65, began on August 13, 2024, when they both received calls from the Liangshan Prefecture Social Security Bureau, ordering them to return the pension benefits issued to them during their prison terms. Liangshan Prefecture oversees Xichang City.
Ms. Xia, a retired worker of the Liangshan Prefecture Tobacco Company, served five years in prison (January 2010 – January 2015) for her faith in Falun Gong, a mind-body practice that has been persecuted by the Chinese Communist Party since July 1999. Ms. Guo, who retired from the Xichang City Chemical Factory, was jailed for three years from January 2015 to January 2018, also for practicing Falun Gong.
Since no law in China criminalizes Falun Gong, Ms. Xia and Ms. Guo should not have been sentenced to prison in the first place. Additionally, by law, pension benefits are the retirees’ lawfully earned assets and should not be forfeited under any circumstances. As such, both women refused to comply with the social security bureau’s demand.
The social security bureau suspended Ms. Xia and Ms. Guo’s pension beginning in October 2024. They both submitted a request to the social security bureau on December 15, 2024, to reinstate their benefits. They also submitted a request to its supervising agency, the Liangshan Prefecture Human Resources Bureau, asking the higher agency to order the social security bureau to reinstate their pensions.
On January 7, 2025, the social security bureau issued a notice to Ms. Xia and Ms. Guo, again ordering them to return the pension benefits received during their prison terms. They again submitted the same request to reinstate their benefits. The social security bureau issued a decision on February 10, 2025, to restart the two women’s pension at reduced levels.
Ms. Xia’s normal monthly pension payment of 3,692.4 yuan was reduced by half to 1892.4 yuan. Ms. Guo’s monthly benefit of 2,910.70 yuan was reduced by two-thirds to 910.70 yuan.
Ms. Xia and Ms. Guo, who both live alone, have no other income source. They submitted a request to the Liangshan Prefecture Justice Bureau for an administrative reconsideration of the social security bureau’s decision. The justice bureau made a decision on February 26, 2025 to hear the case at a later time.
Ms. Xia suffered from lymphoma, stomach cancer, insomnia, vitiligo, and hair loss before she took up Falun Gong in 1997. She couldn’t look after herself and had a sallow complexion. Just when she felt her life was coming to an end, a friend introduced her to Falun Gong. In just two months of reading Falun Gong books and doing Falun Gong exercises, all of her symptoms disappeared. She was overjoyed to be illness free and energetic. After the persecution began in 1999, she held firm to her faith and was repeatedly arrested. Besides the prison sentence mentioned above, she was also given one and a half years of forced labor in 2003. During her labor camp detention, she was tortured to the point of having muscle atrophy, deformed joints, and memory loss. Her hair turned gray and she had trouble eating. She almost died.
Ms. Guo also credits Falun Gong for transforming her life. Her husband had multiple affairs with her colleagues. She divorced him and was enduring heartache. It was Falun Gong that helped her understand there’s a reason for everything. She no longer dwelled in the mindset of being a victim of extra-marital affairs. Her ex-husband married one of her colleagues. He later suffered from diabetes and his new wife divorced him. When Ms. Guo finished serving two years of forced labor in February 2004, she became her ex-husband’s main caregiver. She cared for him until his passing in December 2005. She then went to care for his blind and disabled mother until the older woman died in 2012. Ms. Gao said that without Falun Gong, she wouldn’t have gained such a big heart to care for her ex-husband and ex-mother-in-law.
Such a kind woman, however, was repeatedly targeted for practicing Falun Gong. Her child was only 13 when she was first arrested. After another arrest on January 28, 2015 (which was followed by the aforementioned three-year prison sentence), her then 85-year-old father’s blood pressure shot up to dangerously high levels and he almost died. Her younger sister, Ms. Guo Hua, witnessed her violent arrest and had a mental collapse. The younger Ms. Guo struggled to recover and died about one year later at the age of 50.
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