(Minghui.org) Minghui.org previously reported on an 81-year-old woman’s uphill battle to have her pension reinstated. New information has emerged that she’s still facing obstacles and unable to enjoy her rightful retirement benefits.
Ms. Wu Xiulan, a retired environmental engineer from Jinzhou City, Liaoning Province, served two prison terms (May 2015 – May 2017, and July 2019 – July 2022), for practicing Falun Gong. While Ms. Wu was still in prison, the Jinzhou City Human Resources and Social Security Bureau (HRSSB) suspended her pension in April 2016. She sought the reinstatement of her pension after each prison term, to no avail.
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 since April 2016 and resume her retirement benefits, to which she was entitled after 34 years of service.
The court repeatedly declined to hear the case on the grounds that she “had no standing in suing the HRSSB.” Ms. Wu decided around September 2025 to drop her lawsuit. Her lawyer requested that the court issue a formal decision to dismiss the case, but his request was denied.
Ms. Wu and her lawyer went to the court on April 7, 2026, to inquire about the case status. 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 filed a complaint against the court. When she visited the court again on June 17, 2026, she was told that they had found her printed lawsuit and that she could take it back.
By law, the court must docket the case or formally issue a decision to dismiss it. Ms. Wu thus refused to take back the paperwork; otherwise she would be unable to refile her lawsuit or execute other legal strategies.
The court insisted that they could neither docket the case nor issue a decision unless the Jinzhou City Intermediate Court instructed them to hear the case. Ms. Wu questioned them as to why a trial court would need a higher court’s approval to take up a case. She was told that her case was “special” (Falun Gong-related) and required intervention from higher-ups.
As the court refused to budge, Ms. Wu did not take back her printed lawsuit. She received a notice from the HRSSB on May 24, 2026, saying the agency declined to accept any future appeals of her pension suspension. She was told to go through the procedure for the review of petition cases.
Ms. Wu objected and submitted an application for administrative reconsideration to the Jinzhou City Administrative Reconsideration Acceptance Center on June 12, 2026.
In her application, Ms. Wu accused the HRSSB of violating the principle of separation of lawsuits and petitions. She filed a lawsuit against the HRSSB after the agency denied her repeated petitions to reinstate her pension. She argued that the agency had no right to tell her to go through the pointless petition review again when it stated clearly they would not receive any future appeals from her.
Since the court also refused to docket her lawsuit against the HRSSB or issue a decision, Ms. Wu had no way but to go through the administrative reconsideration process, which required a higher agency to determine whether the HRSSB had violated its legal obligations to her as an issuer of retirement benefits.
Ms. Wu requested that the Jinzhou City Administrative Reconsideration Acceptance Center reconsider the HRSSB’s decision to not accept her appeals and instruct the agency to reinstate her pension.
The receptionist at the center demanded two revisions before they would accept the administrative reconsideration application. The first one was to delete the “crime” Ms. Wu was sentenced for, i.e., “using a cult organization to undermine law enforcement,” a standard pretext used to frame and imprison Falun Gong practitioners. The second one was to remove any mention of Falun Gong in the application.
Ms. Wu argued that she had to include the exact “crime” name and the word “Falun Gong” because her pension was suspended because of her wrongful conviction based on the alleged “crime” of practicing Falun Gong.
The receptionist insisted that she follow their instructions. He added, “We can’t accept any application that mentions Falun Gong.”
Ms. Wu replied, “This is discrimination against Falun Gong.”
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