Mehdi Hasan vs. ‘Professor’ Jiang

Some have called you China's

Nostradamus. 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. Iran clearly has they should

take 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

>> on facts. Do you hear yourself? Does

China control what you say? Now, your

critics might say they're using you as a

propagandist.

>> It is possible I'm a useful idiot. And I

suspect that there are many entities

around the world who would like to

amplify my message, including the

Chinese government.

>> Hold on. Hold on. You don't call

yourself Professor Giang on your YouTube

channel? I do now, but when I first

started out, if you go way back to my

>> Doesn't matter when you first started

out. You do call yourself Professor Jag

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

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 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

Shuin Jang aka Professor Jiang about

Iran and the state of the world, but

also to challenge him a bit. Here's our

interview.

Chin Jiang, thank you so much for

joining me on Zateo. Um, 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 um its uh

individual interests. And so each player

would have its own characteristics, its

own strengths and it would adopt a OCM

strategy in order to win the zero sum

game. So how does that apply in the

Middle East right now?

>> Right. So um United States is attacking

Iran and these two nation states have

different strengths and weaknesses. So

America has um the world's greatest

military. It has a supremacy. It it has

tremendous technology. um and has

unlimited funding. And so Iran is

adopting an asymmetrical strategy of um

holding the global economy hostage

meaning that rather than attack the

United States directly which he cannot

defeat directly it is instead um

controlling humus which is strangling

the global economy and it's attacking

the GCC nations um the infrastructure of

the GCC nations in order to force Trump

into the negotiating table. So that is

the atmal warfare of Iran.

>> Uh you've also predicted that the US 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. Um I think that after a month

I think that um Iran clearly has the

strateic advantage. What I mean by that

is that Iran is very clearly able to

articulate its uh military objectives

and it has a very clear strategy of how

to obtain these military objectives and

it is working uh very hard and very

meticulously to obtain these objectives.

This is complete opposite of America

where Trump has failed to articulate an

end goal. Um, and right now it seems

that the administration, the Trump

administration,

um, is unable to articulate both a

strategy and a purpose to the American

public, which is causing, um, most

Americans not support this war. It's

also causing low uh, soldier morale

among the American forces.

>> What do you think happens next if slash

when Iran wins?

>> Right. So um 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. It has a lot of uh firepower

still not used. So um um I think the

next step in the escalation ladder is

that Trump will send in ground forces.

So over 5,000 Marines uh 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 um uh the Americans

will launch an amphibious assault in

order to control the sh of hummus. Now

there are several options available to

Americans um in order to control the sh

of Hummus. Uh the first option is to

control Kar Island which is the oil

depart of the Iranians. 90% of uh

Iranians oil exports um depart from Kark

Island. Then you have Kasim Island which

is opposite the um sh of Homus and then

there's a naval base uh further down the

coastline. And so these are the three

options uh that the Americans have and

it is unclear which option the Americans

will ultimately choose. Um but given the

track record of the Marines, we can

expect uh 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 um very effective

asymmetrical warfare strategy of using

drones and ballistic missiles from afar

uh hidden in underground bases to um uh

hit and strike uh American assets around

the Middle East. This is almost like

guerrilla warfare and historically um a

imperial power has had great

difficulties in containing guerrilla

warfare. So, unfortunately, the uh

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. Um, and he believes that

the American Marines can deliver this

knockout punch. Liking this video, then

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>> You uh have made a lot of predictions.

Um some have called you China's

Nostradamus. How would you respond to

those who say, "Sure, you guessed that

Trump would win in 2024 and he'd go to

war with Iran." But that wasn't based on

geopolitical insights or game theory. Uh

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