(Minghui.org) A 64-year-old woman completed a four-year prison sentence in July 2024, only to have her pension stopped.
Ms. Lin Guichen, born in March 1961, was arrested on July 12, 2020 for her faith in Falun Gong, a mind-body practice that has been persecuted by the Chinese Communist Party since July 1999. She stood trial on June 14, 2022 and was later sentenced to four years.
Since her release in July 2024, Ms. Lin, a retried employee of the Fujian Province Farming Institute of the Academy of Agricultural Sciences, has not received any retirement benefits. She was ordered by the Fujian Province Government and Public Institution Social Security Center to return the over 180,000 yuan in pension payments issued to her during her four-year prison term.
The social security center also notified Ms. Lin that she will no longer be qualified for her nearly 7,000-yuan monthly benefits even after she paid off her “pension debt” and that she would only receive the minimum 2,100-yuan monthly stipend instead.
Ms. Li responded to the social security center in writing, detailing the illegality of its decision and reserving her right to file an administrative reconsideration should it decline to reinstate her pension as requested.
Ms. Lin’s latest arrest and prison sentence are detailed in the related reports, below. This section provides additional information on her positive experience with Falun Gong and her past persecution.
Ms. Lin contracted an undiagnosed disease in 1996 and suffered from stomachaches, headaches, and nausea every day. She sometimes felt pain all over her body and struggled to fall asleep. Even more troubling, she experienced paranoia, mania, and anxiety from time to time. She was restless and had the urge to hit people. No doctor was able to give her a diagnosis. One psychologist suspected that Ms. Lin had symptoms of depression and bipolar disorder but couldn’t really confirm a diagnosis.
With her symptoms worsening over the next two years, Ms. Lin and her family lived a stressful life. Their fate changed in August 1998 when she started reading Zhuan Falun, the main text of Falun Gong. In about three months, her insomnia and pain were gone. Her other symptoms also gradually disappeared. Her thinking pattern changed and life was bright again.
After the persecution of Falun Gong began in July 1999, Ms. Lin held firm to her faith and was targeted by the authorities. She was arrested in July 2000, for doing the Falun Gong exercises with other practitioners in public. She was held at the Wenquan Police Station for four days. The police interrogated Ms. Lin at her home in 2001 and threatened to prosecute her. They returned to her home multiple times and ordered her to fingerprint her case file. When she refused, they ordered her husband to get her fingerprints. Ms. Lin’s employer was also instructed to hire people to monitor her, waiting outside her home and following her when she went out.
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