It's pretty well-doumented, in articles
such as this one. (Naturally, our dear 'independent fact checkers' rush to call it "unproven" because "China does not keep formal statistics on it". Ha. Ha. Ha.)
Less objective as evidence, but pretty effective in convincing me, is that I've
seen it with my own eyes. Not the killing, thankfully, but the near-ubiquitous hammer in the car. A family friend is married to a Chinese woman, and we've been on a group holiday in China. Several family members and friends of her family showed -- laughing -- that they really do keep a hammer in their car. It serves a dual purpose as a tool against criminals and an 'insurance policy'.
Her dad was, in fact, pretty casual about the purpose of it all. Paraphrasing: "Fools cross the road here every day, hundreds jump in front of you. If I cripple one, he gets the hammer. It's a mercy kill."
It was suggested that most people, even crippled for life, wouldn't
want a mercy kill.
His response, delived ice-cold and without a trace of irony, was telling:
"Mercy for
me."
This is the kind of caring, social attitude that collectivist systems engender. The people in question weren't inherently cruel or uncaring. It's just that in certain kind of system, it's
suicidal to care about anyone other than yourself and your own family. Collectivism, far from doing what it claims to do, actually atomises society into small units that can never trust each other. This is not a bug, but a feature. Because thus divided, the people cannot effectively rise up against the system.
Happy, shiny people! Thanks, Mao!