Police in Beijing late Tuesday released excerpts of videotaped interrogations of Xiao Chuanguo, head of a hospital department, who was allegedly behind the violent attack on Fang Zhouzi, a popular science writer known for his efforts in exposing academic fraud in China.

In the interrogation tape recorded after Xiao was arrested on September 21, Xiao told the police that "nothing else except beating him would solve the problem," so he asked Dai Jianxiang to "beat him but not too much." and said to Dai that "I will confess online that I asked you to beat him, but you should not make him handicapped."

Two attackers disabled Fang with pepper spray, then hit him with a hammer, on a street near his home after Fang gave a TV interview in Shijingshan District on Aug. 29. Fang suffered slight injuries in the attack.

Xiao also told the police, "if I myself saw him, I would slap his face."

When asked about another attack which Xiao also allegedly ordered but this time on Fang Xuanchang, an editor of the financial journal Caijing, on June 24, Xiao said, "he got more than I expected."