(Minghui.org) Since December 2022, a 67-year-old retiree in Shanghai has had more than half of her monthly pension benefits deducted by the government for her faith in Falun Gong. The 1,510-yuan pension issued to her every month is not even enough to cover her rent.
The financial persecution of Ms. Xu Nixia came one month after she completed her second prison term for practicing Falun Gong. The local Social Security Bureau reduced her pension after she refused to pay back the more than 190,000 yuan in retirement benefits issued to her during her prison terms totaling seven years.
Fearing being implicated, Ms. Xu’s husband divorced her ten years ago, and her daughter disowned her. She was kicked out of their family home and moved in with her parents. The elderly couple passed away one after another, in January 2023 and February 2024, respectively. With her pension deduction, Ms. Xu is now left destitute.
Earliest Persecution
Ms. Xu took up Falun Gong in the summer of 1997. Her many ailments, including problems with her stomach and lower back, soon disappeared. As she remained firm in her faith after the Chinese communist regime ordered the persecution in 1999, she was repeatedly arrested and detained.
Prior to the APEC Summit held in Shanghai in October 2001, Ms. Xu was arrested at home by officers from the Songnan Police Station. She was held at the Qingpu Brainwashing Center for two months and forced to watch anti-Falun Gong videos and other materials every day. The police later transferred her to another brainwashing session in a hotel, where they kept her for another month.
Sentenced to Four Years in 2006
Ms. Xu was arrested again on April 4, 2006 by Yang Yuefei of the Baoshan District Domestic Security Division and residential committee staffers. She was interrogated and deprived of sleep for three days at the Baoshan District Detention Center. Her feet became extremely swollen as a result. The police also kicked her, whipped her face with a paper roll and tore her clothes. She was later forced to make boxes in the detention center. The glue used in the production was foul-smelling and toxic.
Without ever receiving her indictment, Ms. Xu was sentenced to four years and taken to the Songjiang Women’s Prison in November 2006. Yao Di, the director of the 5th Ward, and guard Wen Ping held Ms. Xu in solitary confinement and forced her to read materials smearing Falun Gong. The inmates assigned to monitor her didn’t allow her to sleep, waking her up as soon as she fell asleep. Her use of the restroom was strictly restricted and she soiled her pants as a result. Other torture she suffered included being forced to stand or sit on a small stool motionless for long hours. In addition to the physical torture, she was also forced to work more than ten hours every day without pay, which caused her to develop high blood pressure.
Only a month after Ms. Xu was released, in April 2010, police officer Zhang Lin raided her home again and seized her Falun Gong books.
More Arrests
Ms. Xu was studying Falun Gong’s teaching at a local practitioner’s home on June 30, 2011 when she was seized by the police and detained at the Songnan Police Station for a week. During this time, she was taken to a brainwashing session nearby and forced to watch videos smearing Falun Gong. The police took her house key and raided her home when no one was around. The desktop computer and printer of her daughter, who lived with her at the time, were confiscated.
Ms. Xu was arrested again on June 9, 2013 after being reported for distributing Falun Gong materials. The Falun Gong books, informational materials and 600 yuan banknotes printed with information about Falun Gong (as a way to raise awareness about the persecution given the strict censorship in China) were confiscated. They even took her 200-yuan metro card. She was held at the Baoshan District Detention Center for a month.
Ms. Xu’s next arrest was on March 31, 2014 by the Fengxian District police. She was detained at the nearby Minhang District Lockup for ten days.
Ms. Xu was reported again for talking to people about Falun Gong on February 6, 2015 while grocery shopping. The Falun Gong lectures, banknotes printed with Falun Gong messages, and two MP3 players in her purse were confiscated. After a month at the Zhangjiang Detention Center, she was taken to the Fengxian District Brainwashing Center, where she was held for two months. She suffered an abnormally fast heartbeat and high blood pressure due to police interrogation. Without a search warrant, the police raided her home in April 2015 and confiscated her Falun Gong books, and lecture and exercise instruction videos.
Fearing more persecution, Ms. Xu’s husband divorced her shortly after. Her daughter also had a very bad attitude towards her. After Ms. Xu moved out of their shared home, the police kept harassing her and forced her to move several times. Even the landlord of the apartment that her father rented in 2014 evicted him due to pressure from the residential committee.
Sentenced to Three Years in 2019 and Pension Reduced One Month After Release
Ms. Xu was arrested again in November 2019 and secretly sentenced to three years. When she was released in November 2022, the Putuo District Social Security Bureau ordered her to return the 190,000 yuan in pension payment she received during her two prison terms. The bureau claimed that according to a new policy, all retirees serving time in prison are barred from receiving any retirement benefits, despite no such stipulation in the Chinese labor law.
Ms. Xu refused to comply, and the Social Security Bureau began deducting 1,833 yuan from her pension check in December 2022 to pay back the “debt,” resulting in the tremendous financial difficulty she is now facing.
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