(Minghui.org) Minghui.org previously reported on the passing of Ms. Tang Xuzhen on December 18, 2025, and her 14-year pension suspension prior to her death. This article provides newly available information about her uphill battle to get her pension reinstated.
Ms. Tang, a retired professor of cytology in the Department of Pathological Anatomy at Southwest Medical University in Luzhou City, Sichuan Province, died at 88, while awaiting trial for her faith in Falun Gong. For 14 years before her death, her pension had been suspended because of her faith. Her former employer said they had her pension benefits saved aside and were ready to give the money to her as soon as she wrote a statement to renounce her faith.
No law in China criminalizes Falun Gong, and Ms. Tang refused to write the statement. Her pension was never reinstated. Prior to her most recent incident of persecution episode, she was given three years of forced labor in April 2001 and sentenced to three and a half years in prison following an arrest in October 2009.
Ms. Tang’s school suspended her pension in October 2011, while she was serving the 3.5-year prison term for her faith. After she was released in December 2012, she went to the school numerous times to seek the reinstatement of her pension but was turned away each time. Starting in June 2020, she was not even allowed to enter the central administration office building.
In October 2020, Ms. Tang filed administrative complaints against the school with the Luzhou City Appeals Office, the Luzhou Municipal Government, the Chengdu City Intermediate Court, the Sichuan Province Superior Court, the Sichuan Provincial Government, the Sichuan Province Eduction Bureau, and the Ministry of Education. They all ignored her.
Ms. Tang submitted another request to her school around August 2021 to have her pension reinstated. In a reply dated September 2, 2021, the school said its president issued a notice on June 3, 2013, stating that the school would issue her a monthly stipend based on the average salary of municipal government employees if she wrote a statement to renounce Falun Gong.
Since Ms. Tang refused to write the statement, the school said they were left with no choice but to deny her retirement benefits.
Ms. Tang later submitted yet another appeal to the school. In its reply, the school cited two documents: Notice [2003] 150 issued by the Sichuan Province Human Resources and Social Security Bureau, and Notice [2012] 69 issued by the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security of the People’s Republic of China.
Both documents stated that retirees who served time should be barred from receiving pension benefits. Ms. Tang questioned the validity of the two documents as there is no such stipulation in China’s Constitution, Social Insurance Laws, or Labor Laws. She filed an open information request with the Sichuan Province Human Resources and Social Security Bureau. The agency declined to handle the request. She then filed a complaint with the Sichuan Provincial Government.
The provincial government issued a reply stating that Notice [2003] 150 was actually based on Notice [1979] 22, which was issued during the Cultural Revolution (1966 -1976). There was a disclaimer in Notice [1979] 22, stating that the government should follow any new policy when it is later established.
The Social Insurance Law that took effect on July 1, 2011, states that retirement benefits should not be forfeited. Ms. Tang believed that this regulation should override Notice [1979] 22 and Notice [2003] 150. She then filed a second open information request with the Sichuan Province Human Resources and Social Security Bureau. The agency replied that Notice [2003] 150 concerned an internal work flow that was not subject to public information disclosure.
Ms. Tang filed another complaint with the Sichuan Provincial Government. She received a reply dated July 26, 2022, stating, “Notice [2003] 150 was a reply from the Sichuan Province Human Resources and Social Security Bureau to an inquiry about retirement benefits of a retiree surnamed Feng, who worked at the Leshan Municipal Government. This notice was not a government-issued policy and was exempt from the public disclosure requirements. This notice falls under the category of internal administrative information as stipulated in Article 16 of the Regulations on the Disclosure of Government Information. Additionally, the notice concerned Feng’s privacy, and public disclosure would harm her legal rights and interests. Furthermore, higher-ups have issued new regulations to replace this notice; hence disclosing this notice would also cause public misunderstanding, undermine the uniformity of the legal system, and pose a risk to social stability. The non-disclosure decision made by the Sichuan Province Human Resources and Social Security Bureau was appropriate.”
The Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security later responded to Ms. Tang and said that Notice [2012] 69 was not within the scope of public disclosure. If disclosed to the public, the notice would cause public speculation and affect social stability.
If Notice [2003] 150 and Notice [2012] 69 were not subject to public disclosure, they were not formal policies, much less legal doctrines that could be used to deny retirees pension benefits. Ms. Tang took the case all the way to the State Council, China’s highest administrative organ.
The State Council issued a reply on October 3, 2023, confirming that Notice [2012] 69 was not a public document as it was not issued by any government agency, nor did it go through the required filing requirements. The agency stated that there was nothing inappropriate in the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security decision to deny Ms. Tang’s open information request.
Given all the replies she received, Ms. Tang filed multiples requests to abolish the two notices her school cited as legal bases to suspend her pension.
She submitted a “Request to Abolish Notice [2003] 150” with the Sichuan Province Human Resources and Social Security Bureau, the Sichuan Provincial Government, and the Sichuan Provincial Department of Justice.
She also filed a “Complaint on the Illegal Use of Notice [2003] 150” with the Standing Committee of the Sichuan Provincial People’s Congress and the National People's Congress; a “Request to Abolish Notice [2012] 69” with the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security; and a “Request to Order the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security to Abolish Notice [2012] 69” with the State Council.
Ms. Tang sent copies of her complaints and requests to multiple other agencies at various levels.
Ms. Tang also filed an administrative complaint against the Sichuan Province Human Resources and Social Security Bureau with the Jinjiang District Court in Chengdu City, the Chengdu City Intermediate Court, and the Sichuan Province Superior Court. They never responded to her.
Ms. Tang filed a criminal complaint against her school with the Luzhou City Intermediate Court in September 2022. Her case was never registered despite her repeated inquiries. She was eventually told that the court received numerous similar cases and that it would take years to get to her case. Her case was still pending at the time of her death.
Ms. Tang filed an administrative complaint against the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security with the Beijing Intermediate Court Second Division. The complaint was repeatedly returned to her. The second division never registered her case nor gave a reason for not doing so. The judge assigned to the case even scribbled on the envelope of the return notice to her. It was unclear why he did so.
Ms. Tang filed a complaint against the second division with the Beijing Superior Court, which returned her complaint without any written explanation. She then submitted her complaint to the Supreme People’s Court and the Supreme People’s Procuratorate. Neither agency responded to her.
Ms. Tang died on December 18, 2025, her pension never having been reinstated.
Related Reports:
Retired College Professor Dies at 88 While Facing Trial for Practicing Falun Gong
The Benefits of Falun Gong (Part 1): Academics
Ms. Tang Xuzhen, a Retired Associate Professor from Luzhou Medical Institute, Secretly Sentenced
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