We should heap praise on the Beijing PSB. They offered a very good deal to Daniel, the Kiwi, if he turned himself in through his embassy. Not bad, work on the wrong visa type, an F, after having entered the country on a tourist visa, end up totally skint here and so unable to finance one's way home. And no five-year ban for re-entry. A seven-day visa to get out. That's virtually no punishment.
You'd never get such a good deal as here if you were a Chinese in my country who had done the same. In fact, you would be deported just for seeking work as a non-EU citizen in the UK while on an L visa, followed by a five-year re-entry ban.
But the PSB's of other municipalities and provinces may not be and have not been so kind. They can follow the letter of the law, and have done so in my case, even though I had turned myself in for a visa offence rather than being found out committing one.
However, the most important thing is to be able to access sufficient funds to protect oneself against the negative consequences of a visa violation or an unexpected job dismissal or a serious illness or an accident. In China, it's negligent to have no back-up funds available for emergencies. All the same, we should assist the Kiwi financially if we can afford to do so and if we trust him according to what he has posted on the net. you can check Dave's ESL forums, both the China one and the HK one, to obtain the details about what has happened to this unfortunate guy in China. Surely, he can get financial assistance, namely a loan, from a corporate Kiwi or a Westerner working for a multinational in Beijing, if not from us relatively poorly paid FT's here!