(Minghui.org) Ms. Liang Yun, 69, from Qujing City, Yunnan Province, was recently sentenced to four years and fined 10,000 yuan because she practices Falun Gong, a spiritual discipline that has been persecuted by the Chinese Communist Party since July 1999.
Ms. Liang was arrested by agents from the Qujing City Domestic Security Office on the night of December 10, 2024. The Qilin District Court recently convicted her (the exact date is unknown). She is appealing the conviction to the Qujing City Intermediate Court.
This is not the first time Ms. Liang, a retiree of Textile Purchasing and Supply Station of Qujing Department Store, has been targeted for her faith. She was previously jailed twice for a total of nine years (2000-2005 and 2017-2021). On May 5, 2021, two days after she finished serving her second prison term, she was ordered to return 230,000 yuan of the pension benefits issued during her entire first five-year prison term and a portion she received during her second prison term (April 2017-June 2019) (the authorities already suspended her pension starting July 2019 without her knowledge).
Ms. Liang managed to borrow 120,000 yuan to pay a portion of the “pension debt.” She was then forced to sign an agreement to have the remaining “debt” deducted from her future pension payments. She was only given 800 yuan each month to cover the cost of her basic living needs.
Ms. Liang later regretted having compromised with the authorities. She wrote an open letter to the local social security bureau detailing how it violated the law, and explained that her retirement benefits were her lawfully earned assets and should not have been forfeited.
She also wrote about her amazing experiences after she began practicing Falun Gong. She used to suffer from many ailments, including hypothyroidism, cervical spondylitis, thoracic spondylitis, bone hyperplasia in both knees, urinary tract stones, glaucoma, and breast lumps. She was also sensitive to antibiotics and the doctor couldn’t treat her when she was sick. Her life was so miserable that she attempted suicide several times. Two weeks after she took up Falun Gong in 1999, all of her conditions disappeared and she gained a new lease on life. Her gratitude for the practice is beyond words. But because she persevered in her faith, she was arrested multiple times and sentenced to prison three times (including her latest term).
It was not clear whether Ms. Liang received any response from the social security bureau or if her pension was ever reinstated.
Woman Twice Imprisoned for Nine Years for Her Faith
“Strict Discipline” of Falun Gong Practitioners in Yunnan No. 2 Women's Prison