Elderly Woman’s Pension Suspended Because She Practices Falun Gong
(Minghui.org) When 87-year-old Ms. Geng Yingfeng completed a four-year term on June 29, 2025, because she practices Falun Gong, she was devastated to learn that her pension had been suspended throughout her prison term. Without any other source of income, she and her 90-year-old husband could only ride an old, dilapidated bicycle around town, and collect scrap recyclable materials and discarded vegetables from the farmers’ market to make a living.
Since the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) ordered the persecution of Falun Gong in July 1999, Ms. Geng, of Nanjing City, Jiangsu Province, has been repeatedly targeted for practicing her faith. She was arrested in her hometown in Jingjiang City, also in Jiangsu Province, in February 2002, for sharing Falun Gong lectures with other practitioners. The police interrogated her about where she got the lectures. When she refused to answer she was tortured.
Ms. Geng was once hung up on a door frame for 24 hours. The police officers took turns slapping her in the face, kicking her, and pushing her against the door frame. They also pricked her fingers and toes with needles and stuffed her mouth with smelly socks and dirty rags. She was deprived of sleep and not allowed to use the restroom. She was not provided with any food or water.
Ms. Geng was sentenced to three years in prison by the Jingjiang City Court in September 2002. No judges or court clerk were present during the so-called trial. The interim prosecutor Liu Jie came and gave her a copy of the indictment and verbally announced her conviction. She was admitted to the Nantong Women’s Prison in December that year. When she refused to renounce her belief, the guards hung her upside down for three days. The thick nylon rope cut into her flesh and exposed her bones. She was bleeding, and lost consciousness due to the pain.
Torture illustration: Hung upside down
Ms. Geng moved to Jiangning District in Nanjing after she was released. Yet she was arrested again on November 6, 2012, by agents of Jingjiang City 610 Office, Jingjiang City Domestic Security Office, Jiangning District 610 Office, and Jiangning District Domestic Security Office. Terrified by the police raid, her 94-year-old mother, who lived with her, died shortly after.
Ms. Geng filed a criminal complaint in June 2015 to the Supreme People’s Court and the Supreme People’s Procuratorate against Jiang Zemin, the former head of the CCP, for persecuting Falun Gong, only to face escalated harassment by the police.
She was arrested again on August 15, 2017, by officers from the Jingjiang City Police Department and Jiangning District Police Department in Nanjing City. She was detained at the Jingjiang City Detention Center for 16 days and released on September 1, 2017. She was made to stand trial at the Jingjiang City Court three months later, on December 7. No verdict was announced, and she was released after 20 days of detention. She appeared in court again on March 22, 2018, and was sentenced to a three-year prison term. Due to her poor health, the Taixing Prison refused to admit her and she was released on medical parole. She was forced to wear a tracking device. The authorities repeatedly ordered her to have physical exams to see if she was well enough to be put in jail.
Ms. Geng was reading Falun Gong books with three other practitioners on August 26, 2019, when the police in Jiangning District broke in and arrested her. The Yuhua District Court later sentenced her to four years and fined her 30,000 yuan. The court ordered her family to pay 45,000 yuan and claimed that the additional 15,000 yuan was the court fee. She was admitted to the Changzhou City Women’s Prison on September 27, 2021. A month later, the court mailed her verdict to the prison.
The local social security bureau suspended Ms. Geng’s pension around the time she was admitted to prison, and have thus far withheld 220,000 yuan. She repeatedly contacted the bureau and demanded to see the legal basis for suspending her pension. They only showed her a document issued by the Heilongjiang Province Social Security Bureau that barred Falun Gong practitioners from receiving pension while serving time. She pointed out that the out-of-province document had nothing to do with her case. The bureau refused to talk to her again.
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Once Hung Upside Down for Three Days, 84-Year-Old Woman Is Again Imprisoned for Her Faith