Do you think it's impossible he was actually tortured? Putting morality and judgement aside for a moment, basically all governments do this, especially to security threats.
He could've very well been working for UK government in some sort of subversive capacity for the following reasons:
1. It is a well known fact that consulates/embassies are spy centres and he was a consulate worker.
2. His cover was flimsy, he was just visiting some friends to collect money and conducting research? He said one of the jobs was to join social media, which can be done anywhere.
3. The consulate fired him (or he left, whatever), but still quickly arranged for him to leave China.
4. The police seemed to be on his trail since they had so much surveillance.
Of course, there is also a case against torture for the following reasons:
- Seems like UK is distancing themselves from him somewhat. As it has been pointed out, if there was concrete evidence, they'd be all over it
- If he really was just a regular employee with proof of torture, they'd probably grant him immediate asylum and again, make a much bigger fuss over it.
- China seems confident enough in their story to release their video (He doesn't look overly distressed).
In my opinion, he was probably some low level spook/field analyst and moronically compromised himself by visiting a prostitute (probably why the UK is distancing themselves).
To add to your points. With regards to (1), it is also common to think that all companies or academics/scientists are required to spy on behalf of the PRC government because of the law.
On point (2), they also believe that the discontent will spread because they truly believe that american/western political system is 'correct'. That it best embodies the fundamental human spirit, why the Soviet Union collapsed, etc. I have pointed it out before, it is basically a religious belief, that Western Liberal Democracy is the Gospel, all others need to be evangelized. I compare it to religion, because you really need to have "faith" in this truth. Modern parliamentary system is less than 1000 years old.
As you said, there is a profit motivation behind this from a media standpoint. I've pointed this out myself. Being pro-PRC is simply unprofitable due to indoctrination of the population. I don't think that people in a position of power misunderstand China, it is basically a dog and pony show to "keep commoners in line", those "many many Americans" you run into who think "Now that *insert country here* country is free [whatever country that was recently "liberated" by USA], the country will prosper".
Apparently rumors were true and the hygiene conditions are terrible. Some of the stragglers are coming out with fevers...
