(Minghui.org) Two women in Fushun City, Liaoning Province, had their pensions suspended shortly after they finished serving time for practicing Falun Gong, a spiritual discipline that has been persecuted by the Chinese communist regime since 1999.
Ms. Wang Xiulian, 63, and Ms. Zhang Qiuxiang, 61, were arrested on August 21, 2019, for talking to people about Falun Gong at a local farmers’ market. The police ransacked their homes and held them in the Nangou Detention Center.
After Ms. Wang was arrested, her husband Mr. Zhang Kuiwu, who had cerebral palsy and a mental disability, managed to get to the local police station several times to look for her. He often went outside and waited by the side of the road for Ms. Wang to come back. When he went out one day as usual in the fall of 2020, he collapsed and died.
After over a year of detention, both women were tried in the Wanghua District Court. Ms. Wang was sentenced to three years and Ms. Zhang to two years. Ms. Zhang was released on August 20, 2021, and Ms. Wang returned home on August 20, 2022.
The Fushun City Social Security Bureau suspended both Ms. Wang and Ms. Zhang’s pensions beginning in April 2021. The bureau claimed that, according to a new policy, the women shouldn’t have received any retirement benefits while they were incarcerated—even though no Chinese labor law deprives Falun Gong practitioners of their lawfully-earned pensions. The bureau ordered the women to return the pension funds they’d received during their prison terms (between August 2019 and April 2021), before the bureau would reinstate their payments.
In addition, Ms. Wang discovered that 10,000 yuan was missing from her bank account. The bank said the court withdrew the money to pay her court fine.
Related reports:
Liaoning Woman Sentenced to Prison, Ailing Husband Dies While Looking for Her
Two Liaoning Women Arrested for Talking to People about Falun Gong
Related article in Chinese:
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