Mehdi Hasan DEBATES Professor Jiang | Hasanabi Reacts

0:00 For many Americans who haven't seen the world, I guess like professor Zhang's attitude is not unique to say the least. He's just like a, like a Chinese onk. A lot of Chinese boomers have similar insane opinions like, and have moments of profound clarity paired up with like totally insane opinions. It's like the onks. Okay. It's like the, the, the onks from Bangladesh. Right. or an Iraqi unk. Is there a Mehdi thing we're gonna watch? Yes. Mehdi had a conversation with my professor Chiang. Called you China's Nostradamus. You had three famous predictions in 2024

0:51 that Trump would get elected. he would start a war with Iran and that he would lose a war with Iran. Iran clearly has the strategic advantage. I think the next step in the escalation ladder is that Trump will send in ground forces. Nikki Haley was key to your prediction about Iran. You said Trump would pick her as his running mate, but he didn't pick her. I think that the problem with education is that it focuses too much on facts, too much on rigor, and not enough on imagination. Too much on facts, do you hear yourself? Does China control what you say now? The critics might say they're using you as a propaganda. It is possible I'm a useful idiot. And I suspect that there are many entities around the world who would like to imply my message, including the Chinese government. Hold on, hold on. You don't call yourself Professor Jiang on your YouTube channel. I do now, but when

1:36 I first started out, if you go way back to my early lectures. It doesn't matter when you first started out. You do call yourself Professor Jiang and you're not a professor. What is your big prediction now for 2026? We'll see what happens. We can test it out at the end of the year. Back in 2024, Chinese-Canadian educator Shui-Qin Jiang posted a video on his YouTube channel, Predictive History, where he laid out three big predictions. Donald Trump would win the 2024 election, the US would then go to war with Iran, and ultimately the US would lose that war. Since then, the self-styled professor who says he uses game theory to analyze the past and predict future geopolitical events has become an internet sensation and has even been dubbed China's Nostradamus. but he's also faced some criticisms over his predictions and

2:25 many would say pretty out there conspiracy theories. Two out of three of Jiang's big predictions have come true, but how much of that is his own geopolitical foresight and how much of it simply comes down to luck? How much does the Chinese government control or even influence what he says, what he predicts? I decided to not just speak to Shui-Chin Jiang, AKA Professor Jiang about Iran and the state of the world. I don't like the way he hit that, okay? That's, that's Mr. Professor predictive history to you, Mehdi. Unbelievable. He hit the... air quotes. He's the professor in my heart. But also to challenge him a bit. Here's our interview. Shui-Ching Jiang, thank you so much for joining me on Zeteo. Um,

3:11 you have said you use game theory to predict future geopolitical events. For those who have never heard of game theory, please do explain what it is and how it helps you explain what's happening with Donald Trump and with Iran in particular. Right. So game theory applied to geopolitics means that we see each individual nation state as a player in a zero sum game to maximize its individual interests. And so each player would have its own characteristics, its own strengths, and it would adopt a optimal strategy in order to win the zero sum game. So how does that apply in the Middle East right now? Right. So the United States is attacking Iran and these two nation states have different strengths and

3:57 weaknesses. So America has the world's greatest military. It has Eros supremacy. It has tremendous technology and has unlimited funding. And so Iran is adopting an asymmetrical strategy of holding the global economy hostage, meaning that rather than attacking the United States directly, which you cannot defeat directly. It is instead controlling the Hormuz, which is strangling the global economy, and it's attacking the GCC nations, the infrastructure of the GCC nations in order to force Trump into the negotiating table. The CBC literally deported Chiang for spying in 2001, 2002. I don't get where Mehdi's Chinese government control angle is coming from other than racism in Orientalism. Yeah, I don't know. So that is the asymmetrical warfare of Iran. You've also predicted that the U.S.,

4:47 you had three famous predictions in 2024, that Trump would get elected, that he would start a war with Iran, and that he would lose a war with Iran. Based on what you've seen over the past month, do you still stand by that prediction? Yes, I do. I think that after a month, I think that Iran clearly has to take advantage. What I mean by that is that Iran is very clearly able to articulate its military objectives, and it has a very clear strategy of how to obtain these military objectives and it is working very hard and very meticulously to obtain these objectives. This is the complete opposite of America where Trump has failed to articulate an end goal. And right now it seems that

5:32 the administration, the Trump administration is unable to articulate both a strategy and a purpose to the American public, which is causing most Americans to not support this war. It's also causing low soldier morale among the American forces. What do you think happens next if slash when Iran wins? Mehdi doesn't really have a sincere inquisitive mode, and perhaps this guy doesn't deserve that, but he has obliterate mode and my perceived ally mode only. That's actually a really good assessment. And when he goes into obliterate mode, it's, I mean, he is one of the best in the game for sure. He is so... good at it and i will say i think professor jong does deserve it but uh but yeah

6:19 you're right he there are there are a lot of instances like there's certain positions that manty has as as uh an anti-communist right like he is just straight up an anti-communist i don't know if he's like an anti-socialist as well because he does align a lot but he is definitely anti-communist so like whenever uh american foreign adversaries uh uh are are brought up does the thing that he he does the thing that like uh i like to call like the the the the blanket like neutral moral values without uh factoring in to his consideration imperialism and its impact right like western uh western born instability uh and and what

7:09 what countries might do in response towards that kind of, uh, Western backed and Western born instability. Right. Who cares about that? He's solid on every subject. I mean, I like Matthew Hassan. What are you talking about? I love Matthew. I'm I'm I hung out with him. I talked to him quite frequently. I'm just giving you an honest assessment. He is perhaps the best debater and he's not like a, like a debate pervert. about it either Zetao is a fantastic operation. I was just telling you that like something that I've noticed with the way that he operates like when it comes to all of the all of the the states like state

7:55 actors that are outside of the American security umbrella. He has the almost the same smoke that he has for like America and Israel. And I feel like sometimes it's like not as warranted if that makes sense. Like Cuba is a great example of this, which is like a country that we've like actively destroyed. Right. No matter what kind of, um, no matter what kind of like repression exists in Cuba, which is marginally in comparison to like many other countries, including, but not limited to the United States of America, like applying, uh, uh applying to Cuba the same standards that you would apply to like the United States of America or even China because like China is a little bit more appropriate because it's a totally sovereign nation state that is a behemoth of a country now you

8:42 know and and can stand on its own two feet regardless of like how aggressively America might want to destabilize it like doing that same like well What do you, what do you say about like, you know, your critics that say you're, you're engaging in tremendous repression. It's like, well, they've been in war, right? They've been in war for the last 60 years. And, and they've been, they didn't, you know, they didn't invite this war. It was totally unjustifiable. And, and yes, of course, like certain civil liberties are going to be taken away. in an effort to maintain stability. And even then, all things considered, I think like Cuba's repression is,

9:31 especially in comparison to other foreign adversaries, and even compared to like the United States of America or England is like totally marginal. Right. So even though Iran has the advantage right now, we still have to remember that America is the world's greatest empire. It has a lot of resources. Professor Jiang knows every question Matthew will ask before the interview. True. He predicted it, except I don't think he really did. Because if he had predicted what this interview was going to look like, he probably wouldn't have done it. Because I could have told Professor Jiang not to do this interview at all. It has a lot of firepower still not used. So I think the next step, in the escalation ladder is that Trump was setting ground forces. So over 5,000

10:21 Marines and soldiers have been dispatched to the Middle East. This is already on top of the 50,000 American soldiers already stationed in the Middle East. And most military analysts expect that the Americans will launch an amphibious assault in order to control the Shred of Hormuz. Now there are several options available to Americans in order to control the Strait of Hormuz. The first option is to control Karg Island, which is the oil depart of the Iranians. 90% of Iranians oil exports depart from Karg Island. Then you have Kasim Island, which is opposite the Strait of Hormuz. And then there's a naval base further down the coastline. And so these are the three options that the Americans have. and it is unclear which option the

11:09 Americans will ultimately choose. But given the track record of the Marines, we can... Dude, Professor Jiang has a cult, I swear to God. No, like, you can literally pick apart every single thing that he has said, and people will be like, I just remember his high notes, and I don't give a... Okay? Like, you scratch the surface of his analysis. I'm entertained endlessly by Professor Jiang, okay? I love how much he predicts history. Okay. I'm a fan, but it's unbelievable how much people hang on every word and they get mad at me when I'm like, dude, some of this stuff is insane. Some of this stuff is unbelievable. And people would just be like, what the are you saying? He predicted, he predicted that

11:55 Trump would lose. It's like, okay, man, you know, so did I, well, what does that, what does that say? It doesn't mean anything like, so did many other people. Okay. the Marines to have an early success. The problem with the strategy and the problem with America's overall strategy is what happens next? How do you maintain control over the territory that you've claimed? The reality is that the Iranians have been preparing this battle for about 20 years. They developed this very effective asymmetrical warfare strategy of using drones and ballistic missiles from afar, hidden in underground bases to hit and strike American assets around the Middle East. It's almost like guerrilla warfare. And

12:43 historically, I can't take it seriously without a whiteboard that he's constantly turns around and says, Okay, and then writes what word he was just saying previously. Like I need that. You know what I mean? He loses a big part of his impact when he is not sitting in front of a whiteboard. Power has had great difficulties in containing guerrilla warfare. So unfortunately, the Americans don't have a long-term strategy of how to win this war. Trump is still hoping for a quick strike, a knockout punch, and he believes that the American Marines can deliver this knockout punch. Liking this video? Then don't just watch. Hit like, share, and subscribe. ...predict for politics when he'd go to war with Iran. But that wasn't based on geopolitical insights or game theory. People who follow American politics or world politics could have guessed that. I think I and many others were warning that Trump could win in 2024 and that he would escalate with Iran as he did in his first term when he killed Qasem Soleimani. Right. So

13:31 I think that if you've been following the news very closely, then it was actually pretty straightforward to make these three predictions, right? Because in Trump's first term, as you mentioned, Trump did have a history of escalating conflict with Iran. So the biggest escalation was when Trump ordered the assassination of Qasem Soleimani. And quite frankly, America and Iran should have gone to war during that time. But because of the escalation effort on both sides, we prevented World War III during that time. But Trump was under tremendous pressure from his allies and from his donors to start a conflict in the Middle East. So if Trump had... had won a second term, then he would have started the conflict. I was pretty confident that he would start a conflict if he had won in 2020. But fortunately, he lost. And so that question then was, what is the likelihood that he would get a second term? Would he win in 2024? And then as I watched the news, it seemed pretty obvious to me that the Democrats were hopeless, that they were not delivering on the problem. Yeah, he won me

14:20 back. He won me back. My goat. My goat. He predicted that I would fall for him again, even without the whiteboard. that there were a lot of issues. For example, what was happening in Gaza, the war in Ukraine that was making American voters disillusioned with the Democratic establishment. And so I thought that Trump would have a very good chance of winning in 2024. And if he won 2024, I think there's a very strong likelihood that he would attack Iran. And so all three predictions have panned out. Just on your predictions, I just want to be clear here. Nikki Haley. was key to your prediction about Iran. You said Trump would pick her as his running mate and as vice president, she would pressure Trump into war with Iran. She's a notorious hawk. But he didn't pick her. And his current vice president, J.D. Vance, is widely seen as a skeptic of this war. So you admit you got that wrong? Yes, absolutely. So, um... So I was thinking of what Trump's electoral strategy would be

15:10 in 2024. And I think that if he picked Nikki Haley, this would be a tremendous boost to his campaign, because Nikki Haley would be very popular among neocons in Washington, D.C. She would also be very popular among suburban white women that was key to Biden's victory in 2020. So I made the prediction that he would pick Nikki Haley. But at the same time, I was not completely sure about it because I also felt that J.D. Vance also had a good opportunity to be selected. And I also said during my lecture, making the prediction that Nikki Haley would be his running mate, that depending on whether or not he picked Nikki Haley or J.D. Vance, this would determine how we can foresee or understand Trump's second term. And so if he had picked Nikki Haley, then he would have been fully committed into the neocard project of regime change throughout the Middle East, of supporting Israel, of establishing American imperial power

15:58 throughout the world. He didn't pick Nikki Haley. Instead, he picked the complete opposite, who issued events, who is America first, who has always been skeptical of American imperial overre- Okay. This is where he's wrong. Okay. I mean, obviously he was like literally wrong in his prediction, but he's also just wrong about J.D. Vance. And the reason why I say this because he's just totally off base. JD Vance is not a real human. Like he doesn't have true convictions. He's just a chameleon, right? Like the reason why we, we think of JD Vance as like someone who's a, I guess, anti interventionist

16:43 is not because he actually has demonstrated any sort of anti-interventionist values. He's just Peter Thiel's blood boy. Yeah, he is an opportunist for sure. So Professor Chong had his class read hillbilly elegy. Shut the fuck up. But not only that, he also picked Tulsi Gabbard to be his director of national intelligence. And so these are the two major skeptics of this war in the Middle East. And what I will say about picking these two individuals is that it shows that Trump has an off ramp strategy. where if this word goes sideways and the American public is up in arms and he's losing in the polls, then Trump may decide to pivot back to America first and have J.D. Vance and Tosie Gabbard elevated in the administration

17:28 over individuals such as Marco Rubio and Peter Hegseff. So that, yeah. I suspect he will blame Pete Hegseff if all of this goes sideways as it is. The funny thing about Chiang is that he doesn't even try to defend himself when confronted. When Sneko asked him how he uses game theory, he literally said, well, I don't really. Matthew says he's being used. John will just say, yeah, I could just be an idiot. It's so funny. He's not even committed to the act. He's just vibing it all out. I think this is, I think professor John in a weird way is, is taking advantage of like Orientalist attitudes where they just think he's like a mysterious, uh, Chinese professor who is wise well beyond his years. Like I think Americans see, they hear the accent, they see the whiteboard. And they're just like, wow, like this

18:14 guy's a sage. It's funny because like for many Americans who haven't seen the world, I guess like professor Zhang's attitude is not unique to say the least. He's just like a, like a Chinese unk. A lot of Chinese boomers have similar insane opinions like, and have moments of profound clarity paired up with like totally insane opinions it's like the unks okay it's like the the the unks from bangladesh right or an iraqi unk okay you talk to an unk from iraq he is going to give you the the most complex assessment simplified like uber

19:01 drivers you know like people like that exactly they're gonna they're gonna explain to you everything you're like oh my god you are so brilliant like why are you driving an uber you said you were a chemical engineer. Like how the did this happen? Cause a lot of Americans don't realize that. Like I would say that like the base level of education elsewhere is, is just far better than the average American. And by virtue of not being from America, you're just not, you're not as sheltered. You have a, a much better, much deeper understanding of, of the way world events unfold. Okay. it's that that is it's not unique i mean i even benefit from that to a certain degree right like my perspective

19:49 is is guided by the fact that i grew up in turkey so i have a very different attitude about american imperialism and and endless ceaseless militarism uh than the average american does and the average westerner does okay it's it almost comes across as profound but i swear to you there are a lot of people I don't know. You're saying he grew up in Canada and he went to Yale. Yes, sure, fine. But obviously, he spent a good deal of time outside of America as well. So that's what I mean. My point is, there are a lot of people like this out there. And people, if you don't pay attention to everything that they're saying, you're going to be like, this is the most brilliant person of all time. Where does China fall into all of this? You're a Chinese

20:36 Canadian. You're based in Beijing. China clearly stands to gain from a failed country. US war with Iran. How many, how much of your views are reflective of China's views, the Chinese government's views, the CCP's views? Right. So the official Chinese Communist Party line is that China is committed to global peace and to... He said Chinese Communist Party. Red flag. Flag on the play, Professor Chiang. That's a bruh moment. Global trade, the benefits all. China wants a win-win global system. in which people are trading peacefully and which everyone is committed to world peace. And so China has come out vocally criticizing both Iran and the United States. The United States for starting this war, but also Iran for attacking the GCC

21:21 energy infrastructure. Remember that China relies heavily on Qatar liquefied natural gas, as is the case with other countries in Europe. So China looks at what's happening in the Middle East and China, I think, is working very hard diplomatically to come to an agreement. Unfortunately, right now, China doesn't have much leverage over either United States or Iran. In fact, many analysts believe that this war was started in part to economically strangle China because China depends on a lot of its economy. I'm sorry. A lot of its economy is based on accessing cheap energy from overseas, specifically the GCC. China imports 40 percent of its energy needs from the GCC. And so if the GCC were to stop energy production, then the Chinese economy would be in a lot

22:07 of trouble. And this would give Trump a lot of negotiating leverage over China in the upcoming talks scheduled for mid-May. And I believe that what's going to happen is that because the Chinese are extremely problematic and very business orientated, and I think that Trump and China will sign a landmark deal where China agrees to buy a lot of energy from North America. full of praise for China's role in trying to get peace in the Middle East. Here's what I don't get. You were caught filming protests by Chinese workers, famously in 2002 as a freelance journalist at the time. You were suspected by the Chinese government of spy. You were deported from China. Reporters Without Borders protested your deportation at the time. How did you get back into China? And why is it, some of your critics say, you have so little to say about China's role in all of this geopolitics. Is it because you're not allowed to currently? Right, so... Goddamn, dude.

22:57 Half of the chat is saying Chinese by the other half Falun Gong. Yeah. I think it's a secret third thing where I am going to listen to Professor Zhang in his own words and take it at face value and say it's the spirits talking to him, which is what his assessment is. Right. That's what he says is going on. When I started as a young journalist, I was a contract by PBS. to do a documentary on China's WTO entry. Piker Broadcasting Service? A Chinese unk is speaking. Listen and learn. Exactly. Not everything needs a reaction. One major issue about China's WTO entry, of course, is worker rights. And at this time in China, there was a major restructuring of the state-owned enterprise

23:45 system. So I was dispatched to northeastern China to film a worker protest. Unfortunately, the place was swimming with police spies, and I was arrested and interrogated. for two days. I was held in government NATO for 48 hours, which is the maximum by Chinese law. And I signed a confession saying that I was a reporter and working in China illegally as a reporter, and the decision was made to deport me without charging me with any crime. And so I was allowed to come back into the country, but I was deported. So that was the story. If they suspected you being a spy, how did they let you back in? China's not known for being that trusting. They suspect me of being a spy, but after a 48 hour investigation, after, um, uh, doing a thorough background check on me, they concluded that I was not a spy. And I was a journalist, um, um, working to film in a, in a

24:31 worker protest, but it wasn't just 2000. I don't understand why you spend time working against this guy. Okay. First of all, calm down. Okay. I'm not going after your comfort, uh, professor. That's number one. Number two, I'm just fascinated with him. He's a crank and I like cranks. I'm fascinated with cranks. Okay. Jesus Christ. That's it. In 2017, we checked. You wrote an op-ed for CNN.com headline, China's media enables tyranny and corruption. In that piece, you praise the US media as the world's free speech defender of last resort. Oh, yeah. This guy's out of control. Okay. Never mind. I went back. I'm flip-flopping on my Professor Chong takes. Okay. Nope. Never mind. Never mind. He's out. Red flag. That's another bra moment. said in China, power trumps truth. And China's Communist Party, you said, maintains its iron grip on power by

25:20 controlling what's said in the media and what's taught in the classroom. Do you stand by those views from less than a decade ago? So in 2017, when I was asked by CNN to write an op-ed, I did stand by those views at that time because like everyone else, in 2016, when Donald Trump won, the election, I thought this would be very bad for American democracy because he was clearly not a believer in free speech. He called the news media fake news. And so I wrote the op-ed for American audience saying like the greatest treasure, the greatest wealth of America is the first amendment, the right to speak whatever you want. And I contrast that with China, where you're not able to say whatever you want, where you are very much monitored by the government. Even today, I do not have a Chinese online media presence. I do not say anything online. I do not talk to reporters from China because

26:07 I'm conscious that whatever I say online could be used against me. But hold on. They allow you to be on this show. They allow you to be on YouTube. You get past the great firewall that you criticized in that CNN piece. How come? Look, the reality is that the best way to understand my situation in China is I'm essentially a Martian on Earth talking to Martians back at home in Mars. Like, I am not part of the Chinese system. I'm on YouTube, which is blocked in China. I, I, How do they allow you to be on YouTube? This is what I'm not understanding. If you're blocked in China, why do they allow you to become? You're very prominent now. You're famous in the West. I'm sure the Chinese- Okay, so this is what I mean. Like, I don't think Mehdi understands. Like, the Chinese government doesn't give a f*** if you're on YouTube, okay? They just don't care. Like, I think a lot of people- A lot of people think that the Chinese government

26:52 is, like, far more invested in- like trying to manipulate Americans into loving China or whatever. I think they should do that for the record. Okay. They should. And they don't. And they don't to a degree that is unironically self-defeating. Like they have the capacity to export so much culture. They have the manufacturing base for it. They have all of the wealth for it. They have the resources for it. And I'm certain that they have, I mean, they have so many people. There are people who would love to make this happen. And they're just absolutely dog shit at propaganda. Okay. So what's funny about Mehdi's question

27:41 is, he's like, why would China allow you to do this? It's like, well, I was in China. I was able to stream on Twitch. They don't care. Everyone has VPNs. Like they... They don't necessarily give a shit about people utilizing VPS. They might crack down on it at certain points. I'm sure they have. Right. But it's mostly just like a known thing that, that the average person, if they, if they want to enter the Western internet, like enter, you know, escape the, the firewall, the Chinese firewall, they can do so. It's not like a controlled substance at all. China for. you know, all of its, I guess, faults and failures, whatever, genuinely only cares about China and

28:28 Chinese people. Like to a degree that, to a degree that in many instances, like I said, is self-defeating where they literally do not care about anything else. Like they don't care about like the Labubu stuff. For example, there was a lot of people that wrote about how, you know, labubus are a way for China to do like soft power. Like they're finally exporting their culture. It's like, no, they were just trade maxing and that happened to hit. Okay. Like that's it. Same with like black myth, Wukong. Now that might change. Cause Xi Jinping did bring up black myth, Wukong, labubus, and also the, the, the movie nausea to the, the Chinese blockbuster. uh, for children,

29:17 uh, in his, uh, annual state of the address last year, implying that like, they might actually pivot to doing like more exports, more cultural exports, but overall up until this point is just like pure, pure coincidence and pure luck that, uh, things have popped off. He's like national, um, national, uh, addressing of the state. Like the, the, he does it annually. I don't know. What is it called? Like the annual state of the union? Oh no, something like that. But I think they're just confident about their own culture. It's not that they are oblivious. No, it's not that they're confident about their own culture necessarily. They just don't care about selling shit. Uh, they'll, they will sell to the Western world what the

30:02 Western world demands, but they don't actually, They don't actually have any like additional ambitions. The reason why I'm bringing this up is because like, if you're living in China, they care far more about you being on Chinese platforms and then potentially violating the rules or potentially, you know, criticizing the party. Can't do that. Criticizing Xi Jinping can't do that. You can criticize local issues and people do it all the time, but you can't just like shit on Mao Zedong or any of the leadership. You can't do that. That's like, they will ban you. They will ban you from social media. There's also a lot of like weird, there's also a lot of weird restrictions around like even Chinese celebrities, right? Like a Chinese celebrity could have a high profile relationship, for example. And then at a time when

30:53 China wants to, you know, increase the birth rates, right? That Chinese celebrity will fall out of favor after, you know, getting into a, I mean, having a breakup or something, right? Like going through a breakup. And when that happens, they just erase you. They just erase your, your personhood pretty much from social media. It's like, it's crazy. Make no mistake. I find that to be very strange and very restrictive way. They don't like throw you in jail or anything, but they will literally just ban you from social media and they'll wipe you. Okay. It's, Yeah. Yeah. Not IRL just, just on the internet, just on like, and not even on the internet necessarily just on Chinese internet. It's like a,

31:43 like almost like a state enforced, uh, uh, cancel culture. And not only is it a, a, like a, like a state enforced cancer culture, but it's also like it's, it's for unnecessary shit for like things that you and I would consider to be super silly. Right. Yeah, they'll wipe you for scandals. But sometimes what you consider to be a scandal could be like something that's not actually a scandal, right? So that's like some of the restrictions, but it's all entirely internal. It's all in China because that's all they care about. So a guy like Professor Zhang, especially because he's talking about like foreign policy, you can do that every... You can even do that.

32:30 What Professor Zhang is doing, he could do on Chinese social media as well, even. As long as he's not like super critical of Chinese foreign policy, then he can even do that on Chinese social media. But at the end of the day, they just don't give a shit. You know, they don't care. I will say, however, at least from my conversations that I've had with people that have lived in China for a very long time, both Westerners and also Chinese, netizens is that at times they're very responsive to American intervention. They're very responsive to American intervention. So like whenever America starts saber rattling against China, they clamp down on any kind of dissent. So

33:19 ironically enough, the way we move here against China ends up having impact on the day-to-day existence of Chinese people. So crackdowns do actually happen. Like during COVID, there was a lot of state enforcement, a lot of state repression, right? As a matter of fact, if you've done any like Marvel Rivals ads or anything like that, I mean, many of you probably haven't, but if you've done any like ads where the main subsidiary is like a Chinese company, they will very clearly tell you like, you can't say anything about COVID, like anything. And at first, when I saw that restriction, I thought, oh, I guess they're like super sensitive to like racism, right? Oh, COVID is a Chinese virus, whatever. No,

34:05 it's not that. It's just they literally do not want you to talk about COVID at all. And it's like a holdover from back when there were a lot of criticism on social media during the COVID zero policy that they were implementing. And it was more so like the uncertainty that people had about like when they would be able to go outside. and how terrified they were about that. But ultimately, ultimately it's just, so if we're chill, they're also chill. Yeah, I think they're just very responsive to what they perceive as like American interference. Because when America was like constantly talking about like China's COVID policies, when America was talking about China's COVID policies, there was a lot of people like writing about, you know, how

34:52 restrictive China was and all this shit. And they were trying to have access to like people in China to criticize the Chinese government about their restrictive COVID policies. Like they were super sensitive about that. And they were actively enforcing these social media bands. And some of that repression stays behind. A lot of people have told me that China was like a lot more open from like the 2012 period until like 2019. Yeah. it got post COVID when there was tremendous prosperity at the same time. There was a lot of development that came after COVID, but there was also a lot of repression as far as speech goes during the COVID period that didn't like fully open up again as it was

35:42 back in like 2012. It's the same in Cuba, same political consequences because of US policy. And then the US then turns around and uses it as justification for more bad policy. Yeah. But yeah, I think Manti doesn't fully understand like Chinese restrictions in general. And I don't even fault them for it. Let's be real. Most, most Westerners don't get it. I saw a video talking about your controversial bearing of a high collar fashion style on Hanfu style clothing. You even make fashion political. No, that's normal. A lot of, a lot of Chinese netizens don't like the Adidas track suit because it's not even like a, it's, it's not, it's like a resembling a bygone era of Chinese culture. That's a separate thing. Yeah, they hate those. Well, most Chinese will have access to a VPN device, and

36:28 that's what I use in order to access the Internet. You wrote for CNN that the Chinese government has built a great firewall to monitor and control their citizens pursuit of truth. Does China control what you say now? China does not control what I say because, again, I'm not talking to Chinese people. I'm talking to... Yeah, see, he's right. Professor Jiang is actually right about this. Like, he's not wrong about this. He's literally right about this. I know it sounds like defensive or whatever, but he's absolutely right about this. China doesn't give a you can even, you can even be on a Chinese websites and, and talk about most of the he talks about. Like you can literally just sit there and on America all day, every day. No one's going to ever, the government's never going to say anything about it. Atriok, Aiden and Doug, Doug talked about that specific thing on their pockets. The way they described

37:14 it is after hearing with a professor at a university is that a lot of those strict rules are enforced by local governments. They explained that the national government only provides a framework. what terms should be on apps and all that but the local governments get to dictate how they hand out punishments on that yeah i mean there's a lot of yeah there's a lot of stuff that happens that that is left to the localities and then because we still we still look at china as this like fascinating totally closed circuit country when it's not very accessible uh we just decide like even the even the social credit stuff is is literally not a national policy at all. It was never a national policy. It was attempted. It was really a pilot program somewhere and then they never even implemented it. But like people talk about it still to this day. Anyway. Westerners. Hold

38:00 on. That's what most people would say is China's great benefit. They might see your critics might say they're using you as a propagandist to come and say this stuff about Iran and the US on behalf of China. That would be what your critics would say. Look, the reality is that this is a fair and legitimate criticism that I've been contemplating for the past three, four weeks. Because, you know, when I first started this YouTube channel, like, two years ago, I was expecting 5,000 viewers who would have a passion for learning, who would be as engaged with literature and geopolitics as I was. And over the past month, I've blown up all across the Internet. And I don't think this is organic. But, but, so I wonder if there are some governments or some entities that believe that my message should be amplified. It is possible I'm a useful idiot. And I suspect that there are many entities around the world who would like to imply my message, including the Chinese government, also including the

38:45 Russian government, including some aspects of American government, including some people who are hostile towards war. I appreciate your candor. You said you blew up on the internet. You did go viral over your Iran predictions. But on your YouTube page, as people now start to acquaint themselves with you and familiarize with your work, people have been slightly surprised to see some of your other stuff. You have a series of lectures focused on secret societies where you argue that groups like the Illuminati, the Freemasons, the Jesuits- Okay, this part is, I mean, this is my gripe with Professor Jiang, not my Professor Jiang. ...are at the center of world control. People would say you sound kind of crazy when you talk about the Illuminati. It's the kind of thing you hear in Dan Brown novels. Right, so I'm trying a new approach to pedagogy and to scholarship, which is speculative, which is speculative analysis. So I went to Yale and I received

39:30 a very rigorous classical education. I'm very happy and proud that I went to Yale. But what I discovered in life, as I stumbled through life, is that what I was taught at Yale doesn't really apply to real life. People with the most rational, logical arguments don't usually win. And people who are the most progressive, most enlightened, aren't usually the ones in power. So I was determined just for my own personal benefit to develop a new system, which would give me better insight into how power works in the world. And so I started something called predictive history. And the idea of predictive history is this, how do we know? He's literally saying, I went out in the real world and people are crazy. So I just thought I'll be crazy myself. That's awesome. Oh God, how can you not

40:18 love this guy, man? He says some, he leans into some heinous conspiracy theories okay but he does it in such a um I don't know how to explain it like non-threatening manner like like look at his response Matthew also was like you tie everything back to insane conspiracy theories what do you have to say that he's like yeah a lot of people are crazy I I mean I got my classical education and uh you know i realized there's just a lot of people out there who's just nutty with it so i'll be nutty myself yeah he is very nonchalant very unassuming and also very endearing and the thing that we're talking about is literally like holocaust revisionism

41:09 right like it's insane stuff if our understanding of history is correct and the answer is well we can make predictions based on our on our historical framework and using and seeing if these predictions work out or not, validate our historical models. So what I've discovered is that if you have a combination of game theory, historical patterning, and eschatology, then this gives you a pretty deep insight into how the world will turn out. And secret societies are very much an important aspect of eschatology. I'll come back to secret societies. A couple of things you mentioned there. You said you were at Yale. Just to be clear, your degree was in English literature, was it not at Yale? It wasn't in international relations or national security. You're an English lit graduate and

41:54 you're not a professor. I know it's your YouTube moniker, but you're a high school teacher. You're not actually a professor. Right, so when I went to Yale, I was actually a math and physics major. I was declared a math and physics major, but the Yale English department was very strong and so I switched majors. So I have actually both a math background as well as an English background. That's why my system of analysis can seem strange to people because I'm combining a multidisciplinary approach to my thinking. That's my goat. That's my goat. He's so awesome. And I'm not a professor. I'm not a professor. But I never said I was a professor. It's the internet. who called me a professor. Hold on, hold on. You don't call yourself Professor Jiang on your YouTube channel? I do now, but when I first started out, if you go way back to my early lectures. It doesn't matter when you first started out, you do call yourself Professor Jiang and you're not a professor. Look, look, there's

42:42 a guy on the internet who calls himself the God. Have you interviewed him yet? and ask him why he calls himself the God. I think I'm good friends with a radio host called Charlemagne the God, but no one actually thinks he's a God. People actually think you're a professor. Just sticking with your analysis, you just said speculative analysis. To many people, that sounds like you're just making it up. You're speculating. Look, I think that the problem with education is that it focuses too much on facts, too much on rigor, and not enough on imagination. Too much on facts. Do you hear yourself? It sounds... You said, what do you mean too much on facts? Look, look, I know this sounds strange. Shut up, Matty. What do you mean? He's cooking. He's like, yeah, facts are secondary

43:29 sometimes. No, Jiang is being obtuse here. Jiang is just lying about now about being a professor. Also right there, too much on facts. Okay, y'all are haters, bro. He want me back over. God, he is my Professor Jiang. He is my professor. I'm obviously Dr. Jihad, as you guys know, and he's Professor Jiang. But there is a difference between facts and truth. Now I understand why that chatter said, can we stop watching now right before this part? Oh, there was some Professor Jiang defenders in the chat that were like, don't see the rest of this interview, I think. It's good. It's good to end it right here. Right? Facts are what can be independently verified by other sources. Truth is a deep understanding of the world that allows you to understand why things are are the way they are, as well as make certain predictions. We used to be a people, a human species that was very focused on

44:18 truth seeking. And that's why religion was such an important part of our lives, because God, prayer was very important to help us understand our place in the world, where we came from, what we're doing here, and where we're going. And now we just focus on facts, on making sure that you can memorize all the elements of the periodic table, on making sure that you are- When you talk about secret societies, I guess people want to say, well, where's the factual evidence? Where's the evidence? You said, I think, the Jesuits control the Vatican. First of all, there's nothing wrong with Jesuits. Good people, I know many of them. Second of all, there's only ever been one pope who's a Jesuit and he's gone. So people would wonder, like, facts are important to your evidence. And people would say that it's not just fun and games when you're doing speculation on YouTube. They look at some of

45:05 your rhetoric and they see that you don't just criticize Zionism or Israel, as many people legitimately do. about this pretty far right concept of Pax Judaica, a new world order centered around Israel. You have a video called Dawn of the Jew. I think one of the craziest things he's done, and there's a lot, right? Like the Holocaust revisionism, all that stuff is like very dangerous and cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs. Pax Judaica is another one of those things. But one of the funniest things he said, and there's many of them, was when he said that the next era the, the, of great powers are going to be Israel. And what was it like? It was all these countries that are, are going to rise from the ashes of being

45:52 dominated. I think it was like Japan, Israel, and, and was it Iran? No, I don't even think it was Iran. Yeah. Israel, Germany, and Japan, those are going to be like the three major powers in the world. Oh, it's funny. Tax Islamica was great too when he said Iran is going to unite the world of Islam. I'm still waiting for that, but you know. Jews in which you seek to answer the question, why is it that Jews are so dominant? Surely you understand why a lot of people think at best you're trafficking in pretty anti-Semitic tropes and at worst you're a card carrying anti-Semite when they see that stuff. Okay, well that is a very strong accusation. So can you please tell me what He worked for

46:37 Christian Science Monitor? Shut the f*** up, really? Dude, this is the most fascinating guy of all time. Christian Science Monitor? What the hell? I mean, Christian Science Monitor actually does great coverage. Like, it is a well-respected institution. It's the one that I'm thinking of. Yeah, it's not like you might hear the word Christian Science and think like it's bullshit. It's not. It's like an actual legitimate operation. We're always just curious as what is going on. Yeah. Uh, he was a research, a global education innovation initiative at the Harvard graduate school of education and fellow of the Royal science of arts, Nostradamus of China. Others criticize predictions for relying on selective historical analogies, speculative game theory, reasoning and

47:25 untestable assumptions. India today said is, Oh God, India today haters. said that his geopolitical analysis glaringly do not feature Chinese foreign policy or internal problems with China, even though he resides in the country under his career section towards the end, he has appeared in the New York times, Chinese edition, China youth daily wall street journal, the chronicle of higher education. In 2003, he was allowed by Chinese officials to return to China, where he decided to abandon freelance journalism and pursue public education instead. If anything, it seems like he was a undercover spy against China, right? Like after graduation, he fell into a deep frustration and he failed to publish his own book or get articles published in magazine. I felt lost, angry, bewildered by

48:12 the world. I jumped from one job to another, never settled down and eventually fell into severe depression when I was almost 30 while suffering from depression, which continued for the next five years in 2000. Shang moved to Beijing where he worked small stance as a freelance journalist jung wrote for publications such as the american christian science modern and hong kong-based far eastern economic review in 2002 jang initiated educational reforms at shenzhen middle school in 2001 jang was contact contracted to conduct an undercover us-funded pbs documentary about the labor movement in china while filming one such protest and uh king chang was arrested and detained for two days before he was deported from china on the 5th of june 2002 a friend claimed that he was accused of making illegal video recordings and suspected of spying no charges were filed you're doing a surface

48:58 level analysis look at what's changed hey it's on eight hours stream that's impressive is this a regular thing or just a wrong worst of bro why aren't you checking wikipedia edit history dude what's up with professor chong dick riders man i i like the guy okay give me a break holy jesus christ i mean he's cuckoo for cocoa puffs but you don't have to be a shooter for him like that. You know, God damn. Yeah. Look at the Wikipedia edit. It's the, I looked, it's the Illuminati. Why do you like them? I don't know why he is like a very, well, first of all, I'm fascinated with conspiracy theorists as you guys probably know by now, that's number one. I'm fascinated with the things they come up with. I'm fascinated with the way they operate. I love cranks. But also,

49:49 With John he's he's like, he's very unassuming, you know, so he's there's something to it. Specifically, I've said that you find offensive. When you do a video called dawn of the Jews, why is it that Jews are so dominant? You don't find that offensive? I never said Jews were dominant. What I said in my lecture was that the Jewish identity was created by the Persian Empire in order to better control the Lavon. Bro, he literally, he's like, no, you don't understand. I'm not anti-Semitic in the way that you think I am. I'm just crazy. See, this is why, how can you not like the guy? This is what I mean, man.

50:43 That's, I bet you Mehdi has not heard that one before. You know what I mean? Like, that's one of those things where you're like, I don't know how to respond to this right now. Bible, that's exactly what you can derive from it. If you go to my lecture on the Jews, you will see that I used to buy. Yeah, he said communism was started by Wall Street. Yeah, yeah. He's one of those like Rothschild guys. He has a lot of fascist conspiracy theories locked in the chamber for the record, just so you guys understand. Like, He has a lot of the classic takes like the Rosshaas were responsible for the communist, the great like annihilator of, of whites, uh, you know, white Christians. It was the, it was the Jews that basically funded the communist movement, uh, all that stuff. Like he, he leans in that, uh, old school classic fascist conspiracy theories, um, as well.

51:35 as my primary source, and then I analyzed what the Bible was saying. The problem is that most people don't read the Bible. But people who came up with Pax Judaica are not biblical scholars. They're the modern white supremacist far right. Sorry, sorry. What is wrong with the term Pax Judaica? You tell me. What does it mean? It just means that this, that there is an entity in the Middle East, Israel, that is able to dominate the Middle East very much along the lines of Pax Americana and Pax Britannica and Pax Magalica. But you didn't say Pax Israelica, you said Pax Judaica, that implies all Jews. You know the tropes about Jews running the world. I wouldn't be okay if you said Iran is dominant, Saudi Arabia is a dominant, Pax Muslimica. In fact, you know- He has said that. You're wrong. He has said that. He said Pax Islamica. Yo Mehdi,

52:25 you're not a ball knower. That's what I'm saying, dude. No, no, you're wrong. He has actually said Pax Islamica. He said Iran. Hassabi, he's an academic. Of course he's well-versed in the literature. Oh, that there are many racists in the West who do believe that Islam and Muslims are trying to take over the world. I find that equally offensive. Right. So, um, so I'm using a Latin convention. And so the Latin convention would be Pax Judaica. It would not be Pax Israelechah. I mean, like... But you know where this concept comes from. It exists in far-right online circles. It's not some academic term. Do you believe that the Greater Israel Project is a far-right conspiracy theory? No. What is

53:11 it then? I think it's a very real project being carried out by the Israeli government. I just don't call it Pax Judaica. Right, okay. So the difference between the Greater Israel Project and Pax Judaica is this. Greater Israel Project is what the Israelis believe that Yahweh, their God, promised to their ancestor Abraham in the Bible. And this extends from the now... He's unflappable is right. He's just, he just doesn't, he's always like this. He's like, no. To the Euphrates. And I could have just used greater racial project, but I want to differentiate because I believe that Pax Judaea is not empire run by jews for jews by jews it is an empire run by transnational capital and secret societies in order to create an ai surveillance state throughout the middle east and this is listen just to be clear this

53:58 is what i mean bro every interview with this guy seems like a bit every interview with this guy is like the first 12 minutes are like wow okay this guy's really cooking and then like he slams into the last four minutes where you're like what the what are you saying right now where did you pull this from how did you do this this is exactly what happened with the breaking points interview okay this is exactly what happened with the breaking points interview where like the first like 15 minutes is so good and and so sound like the analysis is sound the questions weren't as like contentious as Mehdi is presenting and he's just explaining like his thought process how he believes what you know, what

54:45 has taken place so far. And then in the last like four or five minutes in the breaking points interview, he just starts being like, yeah, it's the Frankists and it's the Illuminati and all this other shit where you're like, what the fuck, wait, what? It's awesome. This is speculative analysis. This is not based on facts, as you say. So it is based on speculative analysis. based on history, historical patterns. It's also based on connecting the dots. Because if you just look at what Netanyahu says, if you actually just go and watch on YouTube... I know what Netanyahu says. We're in agreement on how bad Netanyahu is, how expansionist is. I'm talking about the language you use, the milieu you're in. Let me ask you this before we wrap up. What are your own politics? Where do you place yourself on the political spectrum? I believe I've always been on the left.

55:36 Um, so I, I believe that wealth redistribution is very important. I believe in freedom of speech. I, I am anti-war. I'm anti-empire. I believe in. Bro, that's my goat. That's my goat. He brought me back in. He brought me back in. He brought me back in. Okay. He brought me back in. It's awesome. It's also very obvious that he did not get like a, like a traditional Chinese education. Okay. Cause like half the shit he says, like all of the crazy conspiracy stuff would be instantly solved if he actually got a Chinese education or like went to a Chinese university and like, I don't know, got a, got an education in like Marxist Leninist interpretations, you know, whatever the, like

56:25 all of the, the high ranking officials in the communist party of China have a degree in like, it's just, you, you drop a little bit of dialectical materialism into all this or historical materialism, all the conspiracy stuff goes away and it is a fully fleshed out worldview. He is somehow identify some of these things, but ties it back with like maximum liberalism because of his Yale education. And did your autonomy? And so unfortunately I used to be left, but I think that like given my preferences and given my politics, I believe most people would concern me on the far right nowadays. And that's unfortunate. That is unfortunate. Last question. You made three very famous predictions in 2024. What is your big prediction now for 2026? We'll see what

57:10 happens. We can test it out at the end of the year. Well, I've made three predictions about how this war will progress. Okay. So my first prediction is that the United States will use ground troops. Yeah, I agree with that. I'm with you. And I believe that this ground troops will be a quagmire. Don't try to steal his prediction, Mehdi. You see that? I'm with you. Okay. Don't try to... That's Professor Jiang. That's professor Jones predictive history. That's not your take. Stop the steel many in the chat are saying, bro, I made this prediction too. Okay. Doesn't matter. It was his, his political affiliation is chaotic. Neutral is true. Bro. Unuretically use horseshoe theory for his own policies. He's

57:57 just raises. I mean, he's, he's everything. He's everything all at once for the United States and that they will have to be called a national draft. Okay. That's my first prediction. Okay. My second prediction, and this is very important is that history on the United States will not use a nuclear weapon in this war. I think. I didn't realize that Chang still teaches in China. Yeah. He, someone was saying, I don't know if this is true or not, but like it sounds so unbelievable. Someone was saying that all of the lectures, like fake lectures that he does is how he teaches Chinese students English. And I don't believe that to be the case because that's insane.

58:43 Imagine learning English in high school in China through professor Zhang's lectures about Pax Judaica. Oh no. It's the most insane way to learn English. Oh Jesus Christ. Oh, so good. Anyway, what do you mean by fake lectures? These students do a Q and a every lecture, but yes, he's insane. No, I meant like, like the let okay. Given that he builds himself as professor Cheung. Okay. Someone else gave him that moniker, but whatever he's going with it. And, and what he talks about, you would assume

59:29 that he is lecturing people on, on politics, right? You wouldn't just assume that he's lecturing people on, on the English language and how to speak it. That's why I'm saying fake lectures. Like they're not real, uh, you know, college level, uh, history lectures or anything. Like he's not teaching international relations, but in my mind, in my head, Ken, and I love the notion that he is, he's an English and philosophy teacher at a private Chinese high school. They might be right. No, I'm just in my head. Canon. I hope that he's actually teaching his students English in those videos that we watch. Like that's his method of teaching his students English. That's unbelievable. It's incredible. I need more of that.

1:00:21 the talk of nuclear weapons is fear-mongering. I don't think we will escalate to that point of nuclear weapons. I hope you're right. I worry about nukes. I hope you're right. And my third and most controversial prediction is that I believe that during the course of this war, somehow, someway, the Alexic mosque will be destroyed. Wow. Yeah. Well, that would be a disaster. See, he's scared. Mehdi is scared. Look, that's how you know he believes it. That's how you know you believe Professor Zhang. You believe him. Look how scared Matthew God. He said the Al-Aqsa mosque will be destroyed somehow, which again, like how was that a prediction? If you don't, that's just kind of you making

1:01:06 stuff up, right? Like if you don't have any like a, like clear assessment on how that happens, right? Game theory. No, no, that's not, that's not how that works. John is going to blow it up. That's a parlay. True. To be fair, it could be anybody, nobody, no brother. I think there's only one P one, one country that would do that. Okay. Couldn't be anybody at all. There's only one place, one country, one movement that would be invested in doing it. And they've been trying to do it. He must be banned in poly market. Yeah. I'm not going to say which country it's Israel. Forbid. We will have to leave it there on that rather dark prediction.

1:01:57 Shui-Ching Jiang, I appreciate you taking time out. I appreciate you taking my questions. Thank you so much. I mean, people, people watched it and, and they said exclusive who is professor Zhang? Who does he work for? What is this? Having spent a short period of living in Guangdong during his childhood, Jiang did not speak Mandarin early live only after enrolling at Yale 1997 during a German's visit to us. He signed a Sino us rule of law initiative following year. Yale law school, China law center. What is this? Matthew was so mean to him. I agree. I agree. I will defend professor Jiang. Someone needs to check

1:02:43 professors Calci account. I know a gambler when I see it. No, he would never. That's unethical, bro. Coincidentally, following his trail, uh, professor training at Yale, professor John returned to China for the first time in 1998, working briefly as an intern teacher, falling short internship. Oh, this is so much, bro. This is too much. It's too much reading. I don't care enough. I want to keep his, I want to keep the mystery alive. Okay. I want to keep the

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