(Minghui.org) A Yueyang City, Hunan Province resident is in a dire situation after the local social security office began to withhold her pension in June 2018.
The social security office demands that Ms. Leng Xuefei return the retirement benefits she had received during her 3.5-year imprisonment for practicing Falun Gong between 2013 and 2016. She had almost died from the extreme physical torture aimed to force her to renounce her faith during that period.
As she refused to comply, the social security office stopped her pension and used the withheld funds to pay for the amount they are requiring her to return.
The office cited a recent notice from higher-ups that bars people from receiving retirement benefits while they serve time in prison. Those who had received the fund in the past are now required to return the full amount to the social security office.
Ms. Leng isn't the first Falun Gong practitioner who has to face such financial devastation by the Chinese communist regime, which vowed to “bankrupt Falun Gong practitioners financially, destroy them physically and ruin their reputation.”
It has been reported that Ms. Zhang Xiuzhen from Sichuan Province and Ms. Wei Xiuying from Liaoning Province both had their retirement pensions stopped as their local authorities worked to recoup funds dispensed to them during their imprisonment for not renouncing their faith in Falun Gong.
Ms. Leng, 56, hasn't had a permanent place to live after her husband divorced her in the early 2000s due to the persecution.
Her son is now living in a western country, but Ms. Leng is having trouble getting her passport to apply for the visa because she is on the police's blacklist. The withholding of her pension is now making her life even harder.
Life Renewed by Practicing Falun Gong
Ms. Leng was an employee at a food warehouse in Yueyang City. She suffered from acute leg pain because of lumbar disc herniation. Her situation kept worsening over time despite the medication she received.
In the spring of 1996, a friend recommended Falun Gong to her and told her that many people had their problems cured after picking up the practice. Ms. Leng found a practice site in the park and learned the exercises. Her leg pain disappeared shortly afterwards and never recurred in the past 20 years. Her life was filled with happiness and peace.
Two-year Labor Camp Term Followed by Divorce
In July 1999, upon finding that nearly 100 million Chinese have picked up the practice, Jiang Zemin, then leader of the communist regime, became unsettled about its fast-growing popularity and revival of traditional values that the regime has sought to destroy to make way for communist doctrines.
Jiang ordered a nationwide persecution against Falun Gong, vowing to eradicate it from China in three months. Millions of practitioners were subsequently subjected to arrest, prison sentence and torture.
Because of not renouncing her faith, Ms. Leng was arrested four times. She served two years of forced labor and two prison terms, for a total of seven and a half years.
When she was detained at Baimalong Forced Labor Camp in 2000, the guards locked her arms on two separate beds wide apart. She lost consciousness shortly after, but the guards still refused to loosen her handcuffs.
Right after the Chinese New Year in 2001, she was put into solitary confinement and kept there for a month. One armed guard hit her temple and left her dizzy. She wasn't allowed to bathe or change clothes during that time.
The labor camp later extended her term for one year because she still refused to renounce her faith.
Her husband divorced her shortly after she was released on July 4, 2002. He was given custody of their son.
The tribulation of losing her family didn't break her. With the limited resources she had after the divorce, she printed informational flyers about Falun Gong and distributed them. After the police found out about it, they put her on a wanted list and posted her photo on the street.
She wandered about for a few years to hide from the police.
Nearly Dead from Torture in Prison
Ms. Leng was arrested again in May 2006. She was sentenced to four years in prison by Junshan District Court in November 2006. After more than one year of incarceration at the local detention center, she was transferred to Hunan Women's Prison in August 2007.
The guards didn't allow her to sleep when she refused to recite the prison regulations. They also forced her to peel fava beans for long hours each day. She often got cuts in her fingers while using a knife to cut the beans.
The guards once cuffed her hands behind her back – with one arm pulled over her shoulder to meet the other pulled up from the back. Then they hung her up by her wrists. She kept shaking after being let down and couldn't use her hands for a long time.
When she was eventually released after spending three years in the prison, she didn't have a home to return to or family members to reunite with.
She was arrested for the fourth time on May 5, 2013 and secretly sentenced to 3.5 years in prison on October 17, 2013. She appealed the verdict, but the intermediate court also secretly upheld her sentence without a public hearing.
Ms. Leng was sent to Hunan Women's Prison again in late 2014 and then transferred to a brainwashing center on January 22, 2015.
The guards at the brainwashing center forced her to stand from 6:15 a.m. until 3:30 a.m. each day. She was given only one hour of sleep. Her legs became severely swollen. She had extreme difficulty walking or using the restroom. Her feet were covered with blisters that stuck to her insole and the scar would peel off when she took off her shoes.
The inmates closely watched her. If they saw her close her eyes, they sprayed cold water on her and pinched her arms. Her arms were covered with bruises. She became emaciated and was on the verge of death as a result of the physical torture and severe sleep deprivation.
With strong faith, she endured three years of extreme torture designed to break her spirit. She was released on November 4, 2016.
Related reports:
Practitioners Waiting for Appellate Court Decision to Reverse Sentence
Yiyang City Practitioners Unlawfully Sentenced
Ms. Leng Xuefei from Yueyang City Becomes Homeless to Avoid Persecution
