(Minghui.org) Ms. Xiong Xiulian, 70, who lives in Huanggang City, Hubei Province, was arrested on December 14, 2023 while doing grocery shopping. The arresting officers from the Huangzhou District Domestic Security Office took her to the Huanggang City First Detention Center the next day. They threatened to sentence her to prison for writing numerous letters to various government agencies regarding her employer’s financial persecution of her for practicing Falun Gong, a mind-body practice that has been persecuted by the Chinese Communist Party since 1999.

Ms. Xiong was trying to be reimbursed her suspended pay before she retired and compensation for the unlawful cut in her pension benefits.

Ms. Xiong is a retired teacher and taught at the Baota Elementary School. Within a month after she began practicing Falun Gong, her many ailments, including frozen shoulder, chronic kidney condition, gastroenteritis, breast hyperplasia, and oral ulcers disappeared. She treated her students as her own children and she was loved and respected by them and their parents. Her students cried so hard after witnessing one of her arrests that they couldn’t calm down the entire morning.

Between July 2000 and May 2003, Ms. Xiong was detained three times and had 35 months of her salary withheld. In addition to the financial persecution, she was also tortured while in custody, including being whipped by metal chains, kicked and beaten, and force fed while being handcuffed and shackled by eight strong detention center guards.

Ms. Xiong was arrested again while teaching a class on April 10, 2006. She was taken to the Hubei Province Brainwashing Center. Zhu Chengjie, the secretary of the Discipline Inspection Commission of Huangzhou District Education Bureau, and Yin Nantian, deputy director of the Supervision Office of Huangzhou District Education Bureau, said that they would closely follow instructions from the 610 Office in handling their employees who practiced Falun Gong.

In addition to Ms. Xiong, several other teachers in Huangzhou District, including Ms. Liu Juhua, a senior teacher at Chibi Middle School, Ms. Tong Jinxian, a teacher at Changjiang Elementary School, and Ms. Liu Xuehong, a teacher at Baota Middle School, were also arrested. Some of them were fined and not allowed to teach for a period of time.

When Ms. Xiong retired in 2008, her pension benefits were based on a pay grade one notch lower than her actual salary level, as punishment for her not renouncing Falun Gong.

Ms. Xiong was arrested again on August 16, 2011 during a police sweep by the Huangzhou District Domestic Security Office and Huanggang City 610 Office. A group of police officers broke into her home when no one was around and confiscated her Falun Gong books, computer, cellphone and bank debit card that she used to receive her pension.

Even though Wan Huiya, the head of Huangzhou District Domestic Security Office, promised to release Ms. Xiong, she kept delaying. When Ms. Xiong’s family went to seek Ms. Xiong’s release on January 17, January 19 and February 5, 2012, Wan attempted to extort money from them in exchange for Ms. Xiong’s release. Because the family refused to comply, Wan kept Ms. Xiong in custody for over a year. She wasn’t released until November 2012 after being sentenced to three years with five years probation. The police continued to monitor her daily life by installing tracking devices on her and her son’s cellphones.

Ms. Xiong was harassed a few more times by the local police and residential committee workers before her latest arrest.