The slaves, who in some cases are forced to work as much as nineteen hours a day, are generally poverty stricken migrant workers, those with mental disabilities and children. They handle and transport scalding hot bricks, survive on small portions of water and steamed bread and sleep in locked sheds. Many endure brutal beatings. Two deaths have been reported thus far.

The recent efforts of President Hu Jintao and the Chinese government suggest that this matter will not be taken lightly. This past week's "sweep" of Hunan and Shanxi provinces have turned up thousands of brick kilns that were operating illegally and holding workers against their will. The sweep also freed hundreds of slaves. The central government has allocated funds to be paid to victims; according to the China Daily, each previously enslaved individual will receive the equivalent of 186 USD. Chinaelections.org places the figure at closer to 130 USD.

Even if the government offered a more generous recompense, a scandal of this magnitude a mere year before the Beijing Olympic Games severely taints the Communist Party's commitment to build a "harmonious" society with increased rights and income for hundreds of millions of its poor.

Of the many disturbing aspects of the brick kiln slavery discovery, one worth noting is that by all accounts the Chinese slave trade is a well-organized and smoothly run operation. How could such an extensive slavery ring exist in a 21st century developing nation? It is certainly possible that China's sheer size and multitude of provincial and municipal governments could hinder the central government's ability to monitor daily happenings across the country. It is also possible that the slave trade has aided local economies in China's poorest rural areas, which would provide incentive for local governments to look the other way.

The following outlines the slave trade process in China:

A given brick kiln owner can sell 10,000 bricks on the Chinese market for somewhere between 2,000 and 3,000 yuan. Once the owner has set up a kiln (some are licensed, some are not) he hires a subcontractor to run the operation. The subcontractor receives a very small portion of the income (zonaeuopa.com reports that most subcontractors receive less than 400 yuan per 10,000 bricks). This limited compensation encourages the subcontractor to seek out the least expensive human labor possible.

The least expensive labor, of course, is free labor and so subcontractors begin negotiations with "slave catchers." Slave catchers travel to places where migrant workers congregate and either lure the migrants into vans with promises of well paying jobs (one freed slave noted that he was offered "13,000 yuan per month") or just flat out kidnap them. The slave trade route often commences in Zhengzhou (Henan province), travels to Xinxiang and Jianzuo, which are also in Henan and have brick kilns, then continues to Jincheng, Yucheng and Linfen in Shanxi province. Children and the mentally disabled are also picked up along the way.

The human traffickers sell their wares for about 60 USD a piece. From this point forward, the slaves are in the sole custody of the subcontractor and his henchmen, who monitor them for a work day that ranges from fourteen to nineteen hours.

Heng Tinghan, the subcontractor for whom there was a nationwide manhunt last week, used dogs and beatings to intimidate his slaves from attempting to escape. He also had the windows nailed shut on their sleeping quarters. This action ensured that the slaves, as well as all of their bodily functions, were contained.

During the course of an interview on the Shiyan Evening News, Heng noted "I felt it was a fairly small thing, just hitting and swearing at the workers and not giving them their wages."  Heng was arrested by Chinese police on Saturday.

According to the Washington Post, with respect to this particular brick kiln, there are ties between local government and the slave ring. The owner of the kiln, Wang Bing Bing, is also the son of the village communist party secretary.

Wang and Heng have claimed that technically, the workers at their kiln were not slaves because any man, child or cripple was free to buy his way out for 1000 yuan.

It would take quite a long time to save 1000 yuan when one clears a salary of 0 yuan.

For a moment, set aside the humanitarian and legal implications of this story. Even as a business model this process makes little logical sense. First, the subcontractors are paying 60 USD for each individual they purchase from the slave catchers. Why not just use this money to pay the workers? Wouldn't that make for a simpler transaction? Second, even if it is unlikely, it is conceivable that one could convince the mentally impaired to work nineteen hours a day for no wages, therefore eliminating any need to lock them up and threaten them with beatings. Third, in a country where there are more than 200 million dirt-poor migrant workers and a minimum wage that exists only in theory, it would not be difficult to find individuals willing to work for next to nothing. Children are a different story, but given the amount of people in need of work, there is no real incentive to enslave children, who don't have half the physical strength of a grown man.

In part, the reason that these brick kiln slave camps have been discovered is due to the vast number of missing children in China. Hoards of suspicious and noisy parents are calling attention to the fact that there are still thousands of missing children who may be enslaved. On one hand, children do run away from home at an alarming rate. These missing kids could have joined rock bands, started their own businesses, emigrated to another country or become involved in highly lucrative, illicit operations of their own. But, it is not unlikely that a portion of those missing are still trapped in some brick kiln in north-central China, waiting to be saved by the central government. Local governments have shown little desire to assist parents in sifting through the kilns to find their children. China Daily reports that a letter "signed by 400 fathers whose children went missing early this month" was virtually ignored by local officials. The London Times reported that increasing numbers of children have gone missing in recent years as "a building boom across China has fueled demand for bricks."

Government investigations are ongoing in north-central China. According to an article in China Daily, ministry spokesperson Wu Heping has announced that "the ministry will not cover up a single case." One would hope that in today's China, a year before the world descends on Beijing, that this goes without saying.