(Minghui.org) An 81-year-old woman in Jinzhou City, Liaoning Province, has had her pension suspended since April 2016 because of her faith in Falun Gong, yet a local court has declined to hear her case against the agency that stopped her retirement benefits.
Ms. Wu Xiulan, born in 1945, retired in 2002 after working 34 years at various positions in the Jinzhou City government, the Construction Bureau, and the Environmental Protection Institute. She was arrested on May 13, 2015, while putting up self-adhesive posters about Falun Gong. She was later sentenced to two years. Starting in April 2016, the Jinzhou City Human Resources and Social Security Bureau (HRSSB) suspended her pension. After she was released in May 2017, she contacted them and demanded they reinstate the payments, but to no avail.
Ms. Wu was arrested again on July 5, 2019, when she went to a relative’s home to borrow money. She was given another three-year term and released in July 2022. She continued to seek the reinstatement of her pension after that, still to no avail.
The financial persecution caused tremendous difficulty to Ms. Wu, who has no children to take care of her. She couldn’t afford to repair her broken windows or heater, or the leaking sink and balcony. She often shivered in the cold of winter.
On March 3, 2025, Ms. Wu filed an administrative lawsuit with the Jinzhou Railway Court, demanding that the HRSSB return the pension they had withheld from her in the past nine years and resume her retirement benefits.
A woman staffer there declined to accept the printed lawsuit using the excuse that Ms. Wu sued the wrong party, when “she should have filed the suit with a district court against the Jinzhou City Social Security Center (SSC).”
Ms. Wu and her lawyer disagreed because it was the HRSSB that stopped her pension in 2016. Additionally, the SSC was not established until January 1, 2024. Ms. Wu recalled that she went to the SSC in February 2025 to request a written confirmation of the amount of her suspended pension, but was rejected. The receptionist said to her, “Our director said that the HRSSB has instructed us to not issue such a confirmation. We [SSC] are their [HRSSB] subordinate and must obey their order.”
The staffer at the Jinzhou Railway Court then consulted the president of the case center within the court. The president reviewed the paperwork and acknowledged that it was within the court’s jurisdiction.
The staffer then took the printed lawsuit but did not issue a written receipt as required by law.
Ms. Wu received a call from the court the next day, asking her to take back her printed lawsuit. The reason given was still that she had no standing in suing the HRSSB and that she should sue the SSC in a district court.
Ms. Wu did not go and urged the court to hear her case. The court repeatedly refused to docket the case. She decided around September 2025 to drop her lawsuit. Her lawyer requested that the court issue a formal decision to dismiss the case, but was rejected.
Ms. Wu and her lawyer went to the court on April 7, 2026, intending to take back the printed lawsuit. The president of the case center claimed that the court had never seen her lawsuit, even though he personally reviewed the paperwork and allowed it to be accepted.
Ms. Wu never expected to be put in such a difficult situation. The Jinzhou Railway Court refused to docket her case or formally issue a decision to dismiss her case. Procedure-wise, the case still rests with the court. She intended to withdraw her lawsuit, but then the court said they didn’t have the paperwork. She was thus unable to refile her lawsuit or execute other legal strategies.
80-Year-Old Former Environmental Engineer’s Pension Suspended Since 2016 for Her Faith in Falun Gong
74-Year-Old Woman Arrested for Her Faith
Jinzhou City, Liaoning Province: Falun Gong Practitioners’ Pension Unlawfully Suspended