Among the policies pushed by Mao in China was acupuncture, promoted by the regime to please poor Chinese communities who couldn’t afford expensive medicines. The wealthy, on the other hand, took antibiotics, vaccines, and everything else we know. Mao himself never personally used acupuncture. In China at the beginning of the 21st century, acupuncture was used by the poorest segments of the population. In the West, curiously, only by the wealthiest. Acupuncture with stainless steel needles (which don’t cause diseases due to rust) has been documented since 1939.
