Li Jianli's wife, surnamed Wang, said on Thursday that the protesters who attacked her husband stopped them at about 3:30 pm on Sept 15.

"Some stopped our car and started damaging it. My husband got out and tried to protect it, but he was beaten by a man with a bicycle lock," Wang recalled, her eyes welling up with tears.

Li lay in bed with a white gauze bandage around his head, also crying as his wife recalled the attack.