(Minghui.org) A former head nurse in Huaian City, Jiangsu Province, had her pension suspended on January 6, 2025. She was also ordered to return the 359,000 yuan pension she received since August 2020.
Ms. Li Jiuping, in her 60s, was targeted because she practices Falun Gong, a spiritual discipline that has been persecuted by the Chinese communist regime since 1999. She was arrested on August 6, 2020, after being followed by plainclothes officers while distributing informational materials about Falun Gong. Due to her high blood pressure, she was released on bail that evening.
Prosecutor Zhang Tao of the Qingjiangpu District Procuratorate indicted Ms. Li in late April 2021. She appeared in the Qingjiangpu District Court on July 13, 2021 and was later sentenced to eight months by judges Cai Hongzhi and Zhao Ye.
Ms. Li was taken to the Huaian City Detention Center on September 23, 2021. Because she refused to wear the inmates’ uniform and insisted on doing the Falun Gong exercises, the guards did not provide her with daily necessities, including toilet paper, tooth brush, tooth paste, or a wash cloth. She wasn’t given a blanket, her food ration was reduced, and the clothes her family sent her were also withheld by the guards, leaving her with nothing to change into. The situation improved after her lawyer protested. Due to the abuses, her blood pressure remained high (181/103 mmHg, when the normal range is usually 120/80 mmHg), during her six-week stay there.
Ms. Li was transferred to the Nanjing Women’s Prison on December 8, 2021. Nanjing is the capital of Jiangsu. Because she refused to renounce Falun Gong, Lin Qianhong and Li Fangzhou, the head and deputy head of the fifth division, ordered inmates Qi Huiping and Ren Jinfeng to force her to stand or squat for long hours. They also restricted her restroom use, deprived her of sleep and reduced her food ration. She was released on May 22, 2022.
On January 6, 2025, the Huaian City Social Security Bureau informed Ms. Li that they would stop her pension that day. They also ordered her to return the 359,000 yuan she received since her arrest in August 2020. The bureau claimed that according to a new policy, retirees who served prison terms were not entitled to any retirement benefits, despite the face that no Chinese labor law stipulates this.
Ms. Li reasoned with the bureau several times and pointed out that it was illegal for them to suspend her pension. She also reached out to the president of the Huaian City Chinese Medicine Hospital, where she worked before she retired, but she was ignored. Her financial situation is now dire, as she still has to take care of her 90-year-old mother, who doesn’t have an income.
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