(Minghui.org) A 77-year-old retired health official in Gulin County, Sichuan Province is facing prosecution again for his faith in Falun Gong, a mind-body practice that has been persecuted by the Chinese Communist Party since July 1999.
Mr. Hu Biao has been repeatedly targeted for his faith during the past 24 years of persecution. He was thrice given forced labor in the early years of the persecution, including one year and nine months given in 1999, one year given in 2001, and three years given in 2004. He was arrested again in 2009 and sentenced to 4.5 years in prison. He was released on September 29, 2013.
On December 13, 2019, six years after Mr. Hu’s prison release, the Gulin County Social Security Bureau suddenly called him, ordering him to return an “overpayment” of 231,816.42 yuan by March 2020. The “overpayment” was the pension payments issued to him to during his 4.5-year prison term.
Mr. Hu refused to pay because the pension benefits were his lawfully earned assets. The social security bureau and the police then began to harass him and his family. He was forced to live away from home, but was arrested in Renhuai City, Guizhou Province on September 28, 2022. He was taken back to Gulin and is now held in Gulin County Detention Center.
Mr. Hu’s son, a physician whose health clinic had been raided by police as they attempted to find out about his father’s whereabouts, ended up paying the 231,816.42 yuan on his father’s behalf in order to avoid further trouble. He also paid a total of 21,500 yuan in fines levied by the local health and business agencies overseeing his clinic. He thought that’d be it, but the police still ordered him to persuade his father to renounce Falun Gong.
Dr. Hu knew his father would never give up his belief because there was nothing wrong with practicing Falun Gong, and the police kept harassing him and threatened to shut down his clinic and implicate his wife and son. He felt hopeless and helpless, and sold his clinic.
Details of Latest Persecution
The Gulin County Social Security Bureau called Mr. Hu on December 13, 2019, notifying him that they were to stop his pension benefits beginning that month. They also ordered him to pay back the 231,816.42 yuan of pension benefits issued to him during his prison term (March 2009 – September 2013).
Mr. Hu visited Ren Ping, director of the social security bureau, on March 4, 2020, to inquire about the pension issue. Ren claimed they were simply following the higher-ups' order to claw back the pension benefits issued to him during his imprisonment. Ren next printed out a written notice demanding the return of the pension “overpayment” and giving him until the end of that month to return all the money or face legal consequences.
Mr. Hu refused to comply and received a second written notice on November 4, 2020, which ordered him to pay back the “overpayment” by the very next day; otherwise he’d have to pay interest and a fine, on top of facing criminal consequences.
As China’s Labor Law and Social Insurance Law protect retirees’ lawfully earned pension benefits from being forfeited by any individual or organization, Mr. Hu filed an administrative reconsideration of his pension case to the local court, only to face harassment from the local authorities.
Zeng Xiangguo, manager of Taiping Town, led six people from the local police station, judicial bureau, and community, raided Mr. Hu’s home on March 23, 2021. They also searched his other residence, confiscating his Falun Gong books and informational materials, as well as other valuables. When Mr. Hu refused to open locked cabinets and safes, they threatened to smash everything.
Zeng and officer Zhao Wei returned days later, on April 1, and raided Mr. Hu’s home again. They confiscated more items and even ripped a couplet put up on the door. They said that the centennial anniversary of the Chinese Communist Party’s founding was coming up soon and Mr. Hu must “transform” (renouncing Falun Gong). They said they’d keep coming back until he transformed.
In order to not disrupt his family’s life, Mr. Hu lived away from home and thus had to halt his efforts to resolve his pension issue.
The social security bureau, the police, and the town government kept harassing Mr. Hu’s son at his clinic, demanding to know his father’s whereabouts. Dr. Hu was worried sick and couldn’t focus on his clinic.
More than 30 people from six agencies, including the Gulin County Police Department, the Taiping Town Police Station, the Taiping Town Government, the Taiping Town Health Bureau, the Taiping Town Market Management, and the Gulin County Social Security Bureau, broke into Dr. Hu’s clinic at 10 a.m. on September 26, 2022.
Other business owners on the same street were terrified and closed shop to avoid potential trouble.
Zhu Zhiyong of the Gulin County Police Department, chief Peng Yun of the Taiping Town Police Station, and assistant manager Zhang Minghu of Taiping Town led the raid.
They next took Dr. Hu to the Taiping Town Police Station for interrogation. He was ordered to pay back the pension that his father “owed” and to disclose his father’s whereabouts.
Dr. Hu asked why they targeted him when he himself does not practice Falun Gong. He challenged them to show which law dictated that a son must pay back his father’s debt.
Zhu said he was not going to talk about any laws, but Dr. Hu must pay and disclose his father’s whereabouts or he’d not be allowed to leave the police station. Dr. Hu insisted that his father’s case had nothing to do with him.
Zhu then showed a picture of Dr. Hu sitting in the same car as his father and said, “Guess what? I can charge you with being an accomplice to your father. I just checked your bank account and you have more than enough to cover your father’s pension overpayment. If you don’t do what we told you to, we can put both you and your wife in detention. We also know where your son is attending school, and we can ‘invite him to have tea’ with us.”
At the mention of his wife and son, Dr. Hu buckled and agreed to pay his father’s pension “overpayment.” Zhu later located Mr. Hu in Renhuai City, Guizhou Province after checking the Hu family’s phone records. He, together with the aforementioned chief Peng and vice town manager Zhang, as well as two other officers, then drove to Renhuai. They forced Dr. Hu to go with them, on the grounds that they needed him, a physician, on standby just in case his father, an elderly man, ran into any medical emergencies during the trip.
Zhu and his people raided Mr. Hu’s temporary residence in Renhuai and confiscated his printer, computer, Falun Gong books and many other valuables. They then drove him back to the Gulin County Detention Center.
Mr. Hu refused to renounce his faith. One week later, Zhu moved him to a place with better living conditions. He arranged for two older officers to watch Mr. Hu, in an attempt to use soft tactics to make him renounce Falun Gong.
Mr. Hu held firm to his faith and was moved back to the Gulin County Detention Center. The police then harassed his wife and son, and ordered them to make him give up his belief. Dr. Hu almost had a mental collapse, after having paid more than 230,000 yuan pension “overpayment” and 21,500 yuan in fines. He ended up selling his clinic to avoid being further harassed by police.
Prior Persecution
Mr. Hu, a native of Yibin City, Sichuan Province, moved to Gulin County after graduating college. He worked in different roles in the family planning and healthcare field over the years. He hard work took a toll on his health and he had to be hospitalized several times each year. In less than one month after he took up Falun Gong in March 1998, however, all his symptoms disappeared and he felt light and energetic. As a healthcare professional, he was truly amazed by Falun Gong’s miraculous healing power.
After the persecution began one year later, Mr. Hu held firm to his faith and was repeatedly arrested, serving three forced labor terms and one prison term totaling more than ten years.
During his repeated detention, Mr. Hu’s health was severely damaged as a result of the abuse he sustained. He developed high blood pressure, heart disease, gallbladder stones, and liver cirrhosis. He also had four episodes of acute pancreatitis (which had been cured through his Falun Gong practice in the past), including once in Mianyang Forced Labor Camp in 2005, once in Gulin County Detention Center in 2009, and twice in Wumaping Prison in 2013. Twice he was issued a critical condition notice.
When he was serving his 4.5-year prison term, he was brutally tortured, forced to do hard labor for extended periods of time (sometimes up to 13 hours a day), and only given meager amounts of food. The torture he suffered included standing in military poses under the scorching sun or in the freezing winter, restricted restroom use (such as only 3 or 4 restroom breaks each day), savage beatings, and sitting upright motionless for long hours.
The local authorities also raided Mr. Hu’s home at will and confiscated his personal property. From 1999 to 2013 alone, his home was raided seven times.
On February 21, 2003, the Gulin County Human Resources Bureau issued a notice to lower Mr. Hu’s salary by two pay grades, citing his forced labor terms as an excuse. His monthly pay went from 875 yuan to 721 yuan.
His workplace also suspended his pay during his three forced labor terms totaling five years and nine months, as well as during his four detentions at local brainwashing centers. His family struggled to get by at that time, when his two children were still very young.
Mr. Hu retired in 2006 and received pension benefits directly from his workplace. In 2016, the Gulin County Social Security Bureau took over his pension disbursement and decided three years later, on December 13, 2019, to claw back the payments issued to him during his 4.5-year prison term.
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