(Minghui.org) Ms. Wang Hongxia, 67, from Fushun City, Liaoning Province, was admitted to the Liaoning Province Women’s Prison on February 19, 2025 to serve a four-year term because she practices Falun Gong, a spiritual discipline that has been persecuted by the Chinese Communist Party since July 1999.
Ms. Wang was arrested around 10 a.m. on June 13, 2024, when she talked to people about Falun Gong at a local fair. She was taken to the Fushun City Detention Center. The Dongzhou District Court secretly sentenced her to four years but not on the day she was tried. Her family wasn’t notified of her indictment or trial. They only recently learned of her prison transfer.
This is not the first time Ms. Wang has been targeted for her faith. She was previously sentenced to seven years following an arrest on April 18, 2009. Two months after she was released in April 2016, the Xinfu District Social Security Bureau suspended her pension per an order from the Fushun City Social Security Bureau. She was told that she should not have been issued any retirement benefits during her seven-year prison term. Her pension was suspended so they could take back the “wrongly” issued payments.
When Ms. Wang tried to have her pension reinstated the Fushun City Social Security Bureau produced a policy stating that prisoners were barred from receiving retirement benefits. They called her on July 12, 2016 and ordered her to return the benefits issued to her during her prison term—around 70,000 yuan, in one lump sum. They threatened her with “consequences” if she did not comply. It’s not clear whether she complied.
Ms. Wang’s older sister, Ms. Wang Hongbing, was also arrested on April 18, 2009 for practicing Falun Gong and later sentenced to seven and a half years. Her pension was suspended in June 2016, four months before her prison release. After she returned home, she was also ordered to return all the pension benefits issued during her prison term. While still recovering from the damage to her health while she was imprisoned, she faced constant harassment from the police. The endless persecution took a further toll on her health. She had a stroke and died not long afterwards. She was 70.
Related Report:
Ms. Wang Xiuguo and Several Other Practitioners From Fushui Receive Heavy Sentences
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