Shanxi is located in the Loess Plateau in northern China which is known for its rich clay deposits which are easier and cheaper to mine than coal.
Due to a scarcity of labor in Shanxi, some factories outsourced production to middlemen who recruited workers from other provinces, making huge profits for the bosses.
On 1 May, Chen Jianjiao, a representative of the Shanxi People's Congress, received a telephone call from a laborer who had escaped from an illegal brickyard.
As a result, slave rescue operations were carried out by provincial government authorities without notifying local officials.
On 7 May 2007, Henan TV Metro Channel reported the case of five minors around sixteen years old who had disappeared from the environs of Zhengzhou Railway Station.
Having heard of earlier instances of child laborers being kidnapped for brickyards in Shanxi, their parents suspected their children might be found there.
[7] As the scandal received immediate media attention, it also caught the eyes of the country's major leaders, including President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao.
Governor Yu Youjun of Shanxi province offered an unprecedented self-criticism, took responsibility, and tendered his resignation on 30 August.
One brickyard foreman, Heng Tinghan, was sentenced to life in prison, and an employee of his, Zhao Tanbing, earned the death penalty for killing a mentally handicapped[10] slave.