(Clearwisdom.net) Guangdong Province's Sanshui Forced Labor Camp once carried out multiple sessions of torture to "conquer the toughest fortress" in an attempt to "Reform" or "Transform" Falun Gong practitioners. They used sleep deprivation, electric shock, verbal abuse and humiliation, excessive sun exposure, hanging by handcuffing, force-feeding, and prolonging forced labor terms. They also froze practitioners with air conditioning units.

It is common sense that air conditioning makes indoor living more comfortable, especially in the hot weather in the south. However, it was used by Sanshui Forced Labor Camp to torment Falun Gong practitioners. According to labor camp inmates selected by the authorities to monitor practitioners' activities, each room held only one practitioner along with a designated non-practitioner inmate and a camp officer. The inmate and officer were there to monitor the practitioner's activities around the clock. The air conditioner's temperature was set extremely low and practitioners were only allowed to wear shorts and short-sleeve shirts. The air conditioners were controlled only by the camp officer and no one else was allowed to touch it. The inmate was allowed to wear long pants and a jacket. After a while in the cold, the practitioners started shivering uncontrollably. The officers took turns controlling the temperature and monitoring practitioners' activities, and they could go in and out of the room as they wished. The inmates could rotate into other rooms with normal temperatures. Only practitioners were forbidden to walk around in the room or try to leave the room. Sometimes, the inmate would ask the officer to allow them to go out for a while, if they could not stand the cold any longer.

Because each room was isolated from the outside, nobody knew what was going on inside for a long time. Later on, people started to learn that many practitioners who were subjected to this torture were sent to the hospital. This happened around 2004 and 2005. It was about the time when the Sanshui Labor Camp authorities were carrying out the fifth or sixth round of the "conquering the toughest fortress" campaign. Many practitioners' terms were extended repeatedly. Some of them were transferred to other labor camps and continued to be detained.

August 8, 2009