(Minghui.org) Right after the 2022 Chinese New Year holiday (in February), I received a notice to appear in court in four days to face the local Social Security Bureau’s lawsuit against me. The Bureau was seeking the return of pension benefits issued to me while I was imprisoned for practicing Falun Dafa. 

I was dumbfounded and under tremendous pressure. I reminded myself not to be nervous and I decided to just take the time to prepare for the court hearing.

After my daily Fa study and exercises, I began to read the “Gongyi Forum,” a platform for practitioners to share our experiences in taking legal action to counteract the persecution.

With the help of another practitioner who happens to be a lawyer, I wrote a draft defense statement. I now took it as an opportunity to clarify the facts to those in the judiciary branches. I had a thought, “As long as I do my part well and am not attached to the result, everything is up for Master to decide.”

A day before the scheduled hearing, our city was suddenly put on a lockdown due to an outbreak of Covid cases. The hearing was postponed for a month. Now I had ample time to fully prepare my defense statement. 

On the rescheduled hearing day, I did the exercises, studied the Fa and sent forth righteous thoughts, before I went to the court. I didn’t feel nervous at all. I felt I was the protagonist in the case and the court was my stage. With Master’s help, I fully clarified the facts about Dafa and answered the questions well. 

The Social Security Bureau cited as legal basis two notices issued by the Heilongjiang Labor Bureau in 2001, which deprived retirees serving time of any pension benefits. But the fact is that neither notice was the law and actually violated the Chinese labor law and social security law, both of which protect retirees’ right to their pension benefits.

We should be aware that a pension is our own hard-earned personal asset and that it is illegal for the Social Security Bureau to order us to return the funds issued to us during our wrongful prison terms or to lower our pension tier. We should take it as an opportunity to clarify the facts about the persecution and fulfill our responsibility in saving people.