That is also the question on almost every shocked citizen's lips. People have criticized government officials for their indifference and blamed corruption for the delay in freeing the laborers. "We've appealed to police but received little help," say the 400 fathers in an online petition. "Some officers even prevented us from saving children that were not ours. They told us to mind our own business."

Some officials were reportedly involved in the trafficking. Zhu Guanghui, a 16-year-old boy who was freed from one of the kilns, told reporters that a labor inspector had sold him for 300 yuan ($40). It has come to light that many of these kilns had connections with local governments. The Hongtong kiln, for instance, is in the courtyard of Wang Dongji, the Communist Party secretary of the village, and its owner Wang Bingbing is his son.

Many people and the media have been asking why police swung into action only after the central leadership's order. The People's Daily, in a scathing report, has said: "Dereliction of (duty of officials in) local government departments and collusion between officials and criminals is clear."

Other reports have said human trafficking started about 10 years ago in central China, and gained momentum in recent years, with organized gangs being involved. Investigations have shown the "trade" began with traffickers and middlemen, who trapped people at railway stations and long-distance bus terminals with the allure of high-paid jobs in big cities. Boys aged around 16 were the most sought after because they were old enough to work and easy to control.

After they were abducted or lured into a trap, they used to be kept in a room near the stations or terminals and sent in groups of five or six to cities such as Linfen, Yuncheng and Jincheng in Shanxi where most of the illegal kilns were concentrated.

As soon as the slave laborers reached the kilns, the owners used to seize their luggage and identity certificates.

They gave them new names, too, to mislead parents who came looking for their children.

Such sad stories could be repeated if the government doesn't set up a foolproof law enforcement mechanism at the grass-roots level, which it has vowed to do, and take every possible measure to narrow the rich and poor divide.

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