(Minghui.org) Since May 2020, at least five Falun Gong practitioners in Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture, Jilin Province, have had their pensions suspended for not giving up their faith.
Mr. Jin Dejun, born on May 17, 1949, was sentenced to nine years in prison in 2000. He was incarcerated and tortured in several prisons in the cities of Changchun, Jilin, and Gongzhuling during his term. Unable to bear the pressure of the persecution, his wife divorced him while he was incarcerated. When he was released, he was homeless and destitute.
The Yanji City Social Security Bureau suspended Mr. Jin’s pension in July 2020 (Yanji is the county seat for Yanbian). At the time, he was 71 and could not even afford the cheapest rent, let alone the cost of daily necessities. He died three years later, in the spring of 2023, penniless and ill.
Ms. Zhu Xiyu, 67, of Yanji City, has been arrested over 30 times and been given three forced labor terms and two prison terms since the persecution started in 1999. After she finished serving a four-year term on October 17, 2020, her pension was suspended and the Yanbian Social Security Administration extorted 200,000 yuan from her family.
Ms. Sun Qingju, a 62-year-old retired kindergarten teacher in Helong City, was sentenced to four years in the Bajiazi Court on December 26, 2012. She was released in May 2016. In November 2021, the Helong City Social Security Bureau ordered her to pay back the 150,000 yuan in pension benefits issued to her during her four-year imprisonment. She refused to comply because her pension benefits were her lawfully earned assets. The social security bureau suspended her pension shortly afterwards. When she appealed to them to have her pension reinstated, she was arrested in August 2022 and given a second prison term of four and a half years.
Ms. Huang Jiazhen, 58, retired from the Hunchun Forestry Bureau in July 2017. Her pension has been suspended by the Hunchun Social Security Bureau and the Hunchun City Human Resources Bureau since June 2022, which has caused her financial difficulties.
After Ms. Zhang Junling, a 66-year-old disabled woman in Huichun City, was released in November 2022 after serving a 1.5-year prison term, she was devastated to see the mess and broken appliances in her kitchen and her aging and emaciated husband. Because she had high blood pressure, a heart problem, and back pain, she was unable to take care of her husband and had to take him to an assisted living center. Yet the authorities suspended her pension, causing the couple great financial hardship.
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