(Minghui.org) A 72-year-old woman in Harbin City, Heilongjiang Province, was ordered to return 360,000 yuan of pension payments she had received over an 18-year period, simply because she was deemed no longer eligible due to her faith in Falun Gong.
Since the Chinese Communist Party ordered a nationwide persecution campaign to eradicate Falun Gong in July 1999, Ms. Jiang Yifen, a retired employee of the Heilongjiang Province Polyester Plant, has been repeatedly targeted for upholding her faith. She was arrested on December 29, 2001, and later sentenced to four years. Following her latest arrest on March 3, 2022, she was given another three years. She was released from the Heilongjiang Province Women’s Prison on March 2, 2025.
Starting in May 2023, the Acheng District Social Security Center suspended Ms. Jiang’s pension. Her husband’s low retirement income was not enough for them so their children provided additional financial support.
On May 7, 2026, Ms. Jiang received a letter from the Acheng District Social Security Center, demanding that she return the pension issued to her “by mistake.” The letter provided no legal basis or explanation for the decision.
A month later, on June 11, Ms. Jiang got another letter from the social security center. The letter reiterated the previous claim that the pension she had received from June 2005 (when she reached the legal retirement age) to April 2023 (the month before her pension suspension) was a “mistake” and demanded that she return all of the funds, totaling 360,440.42 yuan.
The letter stated that if Ms. Jiang objected to their decision, she had 60 days to apply for administrative reconsideration with the relevant authority, or file an administrative lawsuit with the Acheng District Court within six months. If she did not take action, the social security center would request permission from the local court to enforce collection of the payment.
Ms. Jiang submitted a written objection to the Acheng District Social Security Center.
Related Report:
Heilongjiang Woman in Her 70s Sentenced to Three Years for Distributing Falun Gong Materials
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