Professor Jiang: World War 3 Is About To Begin

Full Cleaned Transcript

Speaker labels inferred from context. Host is Steven Bartlett. Guest is Professor Jiang. Timestamps preserved from source. Sponsor reads and channel housekeeping noted inline and excluded from analytical sections.

[00:00]

Host (Steven Bartlett): In 2024, you made three predictions that have come perfectly true, like Trump would start a war with Iran. And you've made a series of new predictions.

Professor Jiang: Yes. And I'll explain each prediction one by one. So, first I predict that Trump will get a third term.

Host: But isn't this constitutionally illegal?

Professor Jiang: It's not. The president now has emergency war powers and so he could actually delay the election. My second prediction is Iran is under a forever war and the United States will institute a national draft. Meaning that if you're between 18 to 24 in America and you're male, you'll be automatically put into the draft system -- and they just passed a law that says that starting in December, you will be automatically registered, which means you're obliged to go and fight. Next, the world will move towards an AI civilian state. So everything you do online is being recorded to figure out how to control you. And then this is the most controversial prediction. This is pretty bad and I'll explain why. And also I will tell you why this war can only lead to World War III, why there's a very strong possibility that the American Empire will collapse, and also I'll show you what the Russians will do and how the private bankers are controlling it.

Host: I'm not owned by anybody. That's what you think. So, let's talk about that.

[Channel housekeeping: host requests subscribers check subscription status.]

Host: This is super interesting to me. Professor Jiang, there's so much going on in the world at the moment that it's quite confusing for an ordinary person like me. And you've blown up across the internet because you've been able to demystify all of this craziness, but also because in 2024, you made three predictions that have come perfectly true. Some might say unfortunately.

Professor Jiang: Unfortunately, yes. What were those three predictions?

Host: My first prediction was that Trump would win in November 2024. Second prediction is that he would start a war against Iran. And the third prediction is that the United States would lose this war and in losing this war, this would radically reshape the geopolitical landscape.

Host: How did you know that Trump would start a war with Iran?

Professor Jiang: The simple answer is this. The United States having invaded Iran because it has no choice in the matter. If it were not to invade Iran, it would lose its empire. Its empire is based purely on the US dollar, the petrodollar, which is a Ponzi scheme. If it did not invade Iran, then people would choose not to trade with it anymore. People would choose to not buy US treasuries.

Host: Why? For the longest time, this system worked fine.

Professor Jiang: But then in February 2022, Russia invaded Ukraine. That was not the issue. The issue was the American response. The American response was to sanction Russia and remove Russia from the SWIFT global payment system. It also ordered the Europeans to freeze over $200 billion in Russian assets. And there's a problem because the very basis for having the US dollar as the global reserve currency is that it would remain politically neutral. The Americans guaranteed seamless, politically neutral international exchange.

So if this trend continues, if you don't do anything about Russia, Russia would take over Ukraine and Russia then would build an alliance with China and Iran. If you look at these three countries on the map -- Russia, China and Iran -- this is the entire Asian continent. And then what they can do is this. They can say, okay, the United States is a bully. They force us to play by the rules. Let's just trade amongst ourselves.

[05:01]

Professor Jiang: And then what they can do is they can build a Eurasian railway system connecting Russia, Iran, and China together. And then what this would do is negate American sea power because it's American ships that patrol and protect the oceans.

And then what would happen is the world -- Europe, Middle East, Africa, India, East Asia -- would look at the trading block and think to themselves, "Wow, these guys, the Russians, Iranians, and Chinese, they use gold as their medium of exchange. Gold is valuable. The Americans on the other hand use US dollars as the medium of exchange which is not valuable. So am I better off with the American system or with this new BRICS system?"

Host: What's BRICS?

Professor Jiang: It's an acronym. It stands for Brazil, Russia, India, South Africa, China. So am I right in thinking because Iran, Russia and China were colluding, it threatened US dominance which is driven by the world using the dollar as the primary currency for trading?

Host: That's correct. So they felt they needed to invade because then they can control more of the Middle East.

Professor Jiang: Right. So by attacking Iran, certain things happen. The first thing that happened is that China is now cut off from Middle East energy. China receives anywhere between 50 to 60% of its energy needs from the Middle East -- not just Iran, but also Qatar and Saudi Arabia. China is an industrial powerhouse. So it needs energy from everywhere and everyone. The fact that China is losing all this energy from the Middle East presents China with a long-term strategic vulnerability.

Second thing that happens is that Europe is in a lot of trouble because Russian energy was sanctioned and so Europe relied more on the Middle East for its energy needs, especially Qatar -- and now Europe has lost all of this oil. Then you have Japan and South Korea. These two powerful East Asian economies are also reliant on the Middle East for their energy. So if you're not getting your energy from the Middle East, where can you get your energy from? There's only two answers, either Russia or the United States.

Russia is at war. And Ukrainian drones are attacking Russian oil refineries and export hubs. So the world in the short term has no choice but to look to America for its energy needs. And what did Trump do recently? He took over Venezuela which has the world's greatest oil reserves. He's threatening Canada, Greenland, Mexico, Colombia. If Trump controls the entire Western Hemisphere, the entire world has to beg Trump for energy and resources and it saves both the US dollar as well as the American empire.

Host: So, as part of your prediction in 2024, you said that the US would lose this war. Why did you predict that the US will lose this war with Iran?

Professor Jiang: Because American society does not have the political will, does not have the manufacturing capacity, does not have the risk tolerance to fight this war in Iran. Basically, America wants to fight this war as cheaply, as easily, and as quickly as possible. Trump really thought that if he sent airplanes to strike Tehran and kill the Ayatollah they would just surrender. That was literally his plan going into this war. He paid no attention to the culture. He paid no attention to the history of the Iranian people. He had absolutely no respect for the nation. And when you disrespect your opponent, when you underestimate your opponent, when you yourself are not willing to commit to the fight, you're going to lose.

[10:02]

Host: So, is Iran's game just to draw this out as long as they possibly can? Did Trump think that if he just bombed the leader, then everything would sort of sort itself out?

Professor Jiang: There's a lot of confusion as to how this war started. But I think that Trump, given his personality, he was convinced that if he killed the leadership of Iran, then they would have no choice but to surrender. And his proof of concept was on January 3rd of this year, Delta Force went into Venezuela, kidnapped Maduro and they completely surrendered. So in Trump's mind, he wanted to replay the Venezuela scenario.

Host: And he didn't realize that Iran is fundamentally different from Venezuela.

Professor Jiang: The short answer is he is a reality TV star. He thinks in terms of optics. He doesn't think in terms of geopolitical strategy. The long answer is that the American military has become a very corrupt and insular institution that is trying to generate as much congressional funding as possible in order to fund the military-industrial complex.

Host: Did he think that he was going to bomb Iran, the people would rise up, they would elect a new government and that would be that?

Professor Jiang: That's exactly what he thought. So, what I want to do now is go to the map and show you what he got wrong.

All right. So, this is a map of the Middle East. And the first thing to notice about this map is the topography -- how many mountains you have. The topography between Iraq and Iran is completely different. This is important because the Americans invaded Iraq and won the war in about two weeks. The Americans practiced something called shock and awe -- the idea that if you cut off the head of the snake, the snake will die. They went into Baghdad, seized Baghdad and the regime collapsed. And they were able to do this because of the topography. Iraq is all flat. It's all desert. You can just fly in your planes, cut off the head of the snake, and the war is over.

Now let's look at the topography of Iran. It's all mountainous. In fact, you can make the argument that Iran is a fortress. And so the first thing is that Iran can choose to fight a war of attrition.

Host: A war of attrition is a game of uncle.

Professor Jiang: Right. A game of uncle is where we don't have enough power to destroy each other. So what we try to do is we try to create pain points, leverage points to force you to submit -- to cry uncle. Iran is 92 million people -- it's impossible for the Americans and Israelis to destroy Iran. So what they're trying to do instead is bomb enough targets so that they recognize that resistance is futile and surrender. But the problem is that one, Iran is much too big. Number two, it is a mountain fortress, which means that you can hide your weapons and your military

[15:01]

Professor Jiang: inside mountains, which allows you to conduct guerilla warfare against your opponent. This is exactly what Iran is doing right now -- their underground missile bases are hidden inside the mountains and then they're able to strike targets throughout the Middle East -- primarily American bases but also energy installations that are key to the American petrodollar system. It's a game of uncle where the Americans are trying to create as much damage as possible in the Iranian nation and Iran in response is trying to destroy as much of the global economy as possible to force the world to pressure America to call the war off.

Second thing that Trump got wrong is how vulnerable the global economy is. Because the Iranians control the Strait of Hormuz. It's only about 33 kilometers across. You can actually swim across it. And why this is important is the GCC exports 20% of the world's energy. The Gulf Cooperative Council includes Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Oman, Iran, Kuwait. They've been exporting energy but also a lot of byproducts including fertilizer to the world -- primarily East Asia and India. In return they've been getting food back. The GCC actually imports 80 to 90% of its food needs.

Host: What's a desalination plant?

Professor Jiang: A desalination plant takes salt water from the seas and then through an electrochemical process turns it into portable water that people can use for drinking purposes and for agricultural purposes.

As you can see the entire area is extremely vulnerable to drone and missile attacks from Iran. He did not expect that the Iranians would close off the Strait of Hormuz. And how the Iranians were able to close off the strait was just by threatening to attack any ships that wanted to cross it. These ships depend on maritime insurance in order to operate. But if there's a very high risk of being destroyed, you will not be able to get insurance.

Host: So, it's not that the Iranians have said to these ships you can't cross. It's just that the insurers refuse to allow these ships to cross because it's too dangerous.

Professor Jiang: So that's what a lot of people say -- that Trump's stupid, that Trump is hotheaded, that he was misled by the Israelis. And there's good evidence to support this. But I want to show you something. It's called the National Defense Strategy. This is a document that was published by the Department of War. And in it, it explains what the American strategy to maintain global dominance is. And in the introduction, what it says is that for too long, America has been bullied by the world. America is a nation that protects the world. Yet

[20:03]

Professor Jiang: Europe, East Asia takes advantage of American generosity. The Europeans don't pay for their defense. The Chinese have been giving America a bad trade deal. The Chinese steal American technology and then use it to make products that they sell back to the Americans. And President Donald Trump, he's going to change that by doing four things. The National Defense Strategy calls for a four-point program to put America first. The first thing that America is going to do is secure the Western Hemisphere. Because the Western Hemisphere belongs to the United States.

Host: When you say the Western Hemisphere, what do you mean? Is that Canada as well?

Professor Jiang: So if you look at the map, we can divide the map into the eastern hemisphere and the western hemisphere. Everything over here, including Greenland, including Canada, including Mexico, every part of this area belongs to the United States. Therefore, you cannot trade with any of these countries without American permission, without paying a tribute to the Americans. And this is why the Americans have parked one-third of their naval assets in the Caribbean today. It's to tell the Chinese and the Russians, back off. If you want to come here, you either pay a tribute or you'll be attacked. That's the first point of the strategy. Something that they call Trump's corollary to the Monroe Doctrine.

Point two is that America wants to re-imagine its relationship with its allies. Basically, NATO needs to pay for its own defense. NATO needs to go fight Russia in Ukraine. America will provide support, weapons and financing, but NATO needs to do more work. And in East Asia, South Korea and Japan need to do a better job of keeping China in check.

Point three is specific to China. The United States does not want to destroy China, does not want to humiliate China, but China needs to be put in its place. China needs to respect the power and the reach of the United States. And how the United States is going to do this is by strangling China economically. Most of China's trade goes to something called the Strait of Malacca. And the Strait of Malacca is the most important maritime choke point in the world. All America has to do is park naval carriers inside the Malacca and China will lose 90% of its energy exports.

Host: But if they parked them there, China would still go through. No?

Professor Jiang: No. America has something called the First Island Chain. The First Island Chain prevents China from reaching the Pacific Ocean. It includes South Korea, Japan, Taiwan, the Philippines, and Malaysia. That blocks China from reaching out into the Pacific.

Host: So in order for China to access trade, it has to go through the Strait of Malacca. And for the Malacca, it can access India, Africa, and the Middle East.

Professor Jiang: Right. And so by positioning naval carriers inside the Malacca, it creates a blockade and China would have to pay a toll in order to access it.

Host: And the fourth point?

Professor Jiang: The fourth one is to rejuvenate and reinvigorate America's defense manufacturing sector.

Host: So supercharge the US defense industrial base?

Professor Jiang: That's exactly correct. So what this means is that the Pentagon a few weeks ago went to Detroit

[25:01]

Professor Jiang: and talked to Ford and General Motors and said, "Because of this war in Iran, we might need you to stop making cars and start making more munitions." And they're happy doing this because the profit margins are much greater for weapons than for cars. This is the Pentagon. You can charge them as much as you want and they'll pay for it. Whereas with cars, it's the consumer market and they may not buy your cars.

So the best deal in the world for Ford or General Motors is to go make weapons for the Pentagon to fight these wars in the Middle East that can go on forever. So we have the situation where, if you read the news, Trump's an idiot, and this war in Iran makes no sense at all. But if you just read the National Defense Strategy -- which is on the Department of War website, anyone can download it for free and read it themselves -- it's a very clear road map of what America needs to do in order to maintain imperial hegemony.

So let's summarize. The first major point is to maintain control over the western hemisphere and create a Fortress America. Second point is to create divide and rule all around the world. So imagine NATO fights Russia in Ukraine. In East Asia, China fights South Korea and Japan. In the Middle East, Iran fights the GCC allied with Israel. What does America do? America can now sell everyone weapons and resources and finance it. This would be back to World War II.

Host: But it makes them weaker as well generally.

Professor Jiang: That's the point. And then what would happen is that $40 trillion that America has in debt, it would disappear because it would be absorbed by the world. So you can say Trump's an idiot. But if you actually look at a map and how America wants this world map to play out, it makes perfect sense.

Host: So the war is going well for Trump?

Professor Jiang: The war is going very well for Trump.

Host: But you said in your prediction that he would lose the war. What's your definition of losing the war?

Professor Jiang: Losing the war means that America would send ground troops. Iran would survive this invasion and this would be so politically damaging that chaos breaks out in the United States and the US ground invasion is forced to retreat and the United States is forced to retreat from the Middle East.

Host: And you still think that's going to happen?

Professor Jiang: I still think that's going to happen. So let me explain to you why ground troops have to be sent.

In phase one of this war which started February 28th, which lasted for about 6 weeks, the intention was to decapitate the regime. The Americans call it shock and awe. The point is to force the Iranians to call uncle. But that's not what happened.

Professor Jiang: What the Iranians did was they responded by attacking US bases throughout the GCC. They closed off the Strait of Hormuz and they rallied their people. Rather than surrender, the Iranians doubled down. That's phase two of the war. Now we've gone to phase three of the war where Trump has basically decided that decapitation does not work. And so what Trump's going to do is he's going to impose a naval blockade on Iran. And the question then is if Trump understands that decapitation does not work, then using game theory --

[30:02]

Host: What's game theory?

Professor Jiang: Game theory is the belief that all the world is governed by rules and incentives. And once you understand the rules and incentives, you can predict how people behave because people will always behave according to their best interest. So in geopolitics, the nation states are individual players and each nation state is trying to use its resources and its advantages in order to pressure other nation states to obey it.

So Trump recognizes that the Iranians have closed off the Strait of Hormuz, but not only that -- the Iranians have also used the strait to finance the war, meaning that they're forcing ships to pay a toll of $2 million in order to cross it. And so Trump has said, "I'm going to blockade your blockade, negating Iran's advantage over the strait."

So using game theory, I would say there's a three-point strategy to force the Iranians to capitulate. The first strategy is economic strangulation. You basically destroy the state's capacity to finance the war. There are two ways that Iran is financing the war. The first is using oil exports -- 90% of Iran's oil goes to China from Kharg Island. The second mechanism is the Strait of Hormuz where Iran can now collect tolls. So what you have to do is eliminate both of these financing mechanisms. You can close off both with a naval blockade. That's strategy one.

Strategy two is you need to create as much chaos within Iran as possible. You want to turn this fortress into a prison. And the way you do that is by stirring up ethnic tensions in the country. The Persian people are primarily in the middle of the country. But the borderlands are primarily ethnic minorities. And there are two ethnic minorities that have always been problematic for the government. The first are the Baloch in southeast Iran by the Pakistani border. They have a history of insurgency against the government. Second are the Kurds who are primarily in the northwest of the country.

So if you are the US government, your strategy is to establish forward operating bases in these areas in order to arm and train ethnic insurgents. You do this because you want to turn them into cannon fodder. You have to force a response from the Iranian military. So if they come in with the army in order to quell these rebellions, that's great because now you can use your air power to decimate the

[35:01]

Professor Jiang: Iranian military. Your problem right now is the Iranian military is hiding inside mountains. And so you want to force them out in the open. And so you want to create as many points of tension in the country as possible to force the Iranian military to respond.

And now your third strategy is to strangle the capital Tehran -- a city of 10 million people. And the way you strangle Tehran is you deny them three things: water, electricity, and food. So you attack power plants, you attack reservoirs, you attack railways that bring food into the capital. And when you do that, these 10 million people in Tehran will now oppose the government and demand a political settlement because they need food, water, electricity to survive.

Host: Is there a government? Right now, there's a debate as to the true extent of leadership in Iran. Because Trump's recent interviews, he's claiming the leadership in Iran are fighting themselves.

Professor Jiang: Exactly. Iran has a very unusual political system in that it's a theocracy -- a religious government run by clerics called mullahs. And then there's a parallel system, the state apparatus that actually takes care of day-to-day bureaucracy and that's secular. The mullahs control the morality of the country and also control foreign affairs. This is important because Iran has two parallel military structures. You have the military but you also have the IRGC. The IRGC are only loyal to the mullahs -- the religious part. So you have this divide in the country where the IRGC see this as a religious war, as a crusade to kill the great Satan and they want to fight to the death.

Host: And the great Satan is?

Professor Jiang: The great Satan is the American Empire. Which is a source of the misery that Iran has been suffering for the past few decades. And they also see this as a global conflict because they have proxies that support their beliefs, including Hezbollah in Lebanon, the Houthis in Yemen, and of course Hamas in Palestine. And before, Syria was also part of their axis of resistance but Syria has been toppled by the Americans and Israelis. So the IRGC see this as a religious crusade that is global in nature.

The political leadership in Tehran sees it completely different. They see this as a conflict primarily between America and Iran and they want to reach a political settlement as soon as possible. And so these ceasefire negotiations, it's really all for show because even if the Americans gave the Iranians everything they wanted, the IRGC still controls the battlefield and they would not surrender or seek peace terms lightly.

Another problem is the IRGC practice something called the Mosaic strategy. The idea is: you know the Americans are the most effective military ever in human history, they practice shock and awe decapitation. So how do you respond to that? You respond using decentralization. 31 provinces in the country with their own command and control that is localized.

Host: So basically they have 31 different armies that have their own leadership.

Professor Jiang: That's correct. And when you do this, it's a fight to the finish. They did it because the Americans possess the most sophisticated surveillance technology in the world -- they can easily identify the leadership and track you down and kill you. So the only way around that is to decentralize the leadership and spread around the country so that the Americans cannot kill everyone.

[40:00]

Professor Jiang: The reality is that given the Mosaic strategy, there's actually no way to coordinate these 31 different military operations. Because the Mosaic strategy was meant to fight to the last. You do not stop until you completely control the Middle East and the Americans have been forced out of the Middle East and Israel has been humbled.

So let's go into the specifics of what the Mosaic strategy is. The idea is that they have an eschatology -- an understanding of how the world should be and how we move towards this world. And for the Iranians, their eschatology is that Iran in order to reach its true potential needs to be master of the Muslim world. It needs to displace Saudi Arabia because Saudi Arabia is too aligned with the United States which is the great Satan. Mecca and Medina are under the influence of the great Satan -- why are there US military bases in Saudi Arabia?

So this war from their perspective is a great opportunity to overthrow the corrupt leadership of Saudi Arabia, but not only Saudi Arabia, but the entire GCC. Overthrow the corrupt governments of the entire Muslim world and install governments that put God and Allah first.

Host: So they're not going to quit. This war once it starts can only lead to World War III.

Professor Jiang: That's a strong statement to make. As a probability, what probability would you assign to that claim?

Host: I would put it pretty high. Anywhere between 80 to 90% probability.

Professor Jiang: So that's certainty.

Host: Basically certainty. Yes. Explain to me how that happens.

Professor Jiang: Okay. So we need to step back and appreciate that there's a global dynamic going on. I'm going to explain to you how each nation sees itself in the world. And to do that, I'm going to use a chess set.

This is the king. This is the political system of the United States, which is democracy. Democracy is vibrant. It's creative. It's flexible. But its ultimate weakness is polarization where today the different political factions refuse to get along. And this may break out into civil war.

So, the way you defeat the United States is not to conquer it. You can never conquer the United States. The way to defeat the United States is to force it into a civil war, which then kills the king. You want the Democrats and the Republicans to form different factions and fight a civil war. You want to create so much political polarization that the different elite factions take up arms against each other.

So, this is the political system. Now let's look at the queen. The queen is the grand strategy of the United States -- how the United States can maintain its control over the entire world. And the grand strategy is already outlined in the National Defense Strategy. Let's create Fortress America and then create chaos throughout the entire world so that we can sell everyone weapons and resources. That's the grand strategy.

Now, once you have a grand strategy, you need attack vectors. The attack vectors are the rook, the bishop, and the knight. The three major attack vectors of the United States: first, America's technological supremacy -- aerospace supremacy. Then you have the US dollar -- allows you to finance everything and everyone wants the US dollar. So, that is the second attack vector. The third attack vector is propaganda -- the United States controls the world's most powerful media including the New York Times, CNN, and as such they can control the narrative of the world.

Now they use the pawns. The pawns are weapons that they can sacrifice in order to achieve the grand strategy. And in the case of the United States, the pawns are the allies -- the UK, Europe, South Korea and Japan. And also the entire Western Hemisphere.

The people who are most opposed to this grand strategy are the Russians. In the Russian system, the king -- the political system -- is an autocracy. An autocracy is good because it allows for coordination, decisiveness, resolve --

[45:00]

Host: Long-term thinking.

Professor Jiang: Exactly. That's Putin. What's bad is if this guy dies, there's a succession crisis. So basically once you topple the autocrat, then the system itself breaks down.

For the Russians, a great strategy is something called the Third Rome strategy. The people in Russia believe that they are the true successors to the Roman Empire. Previously there are two Romes. It was the first Rome, then it moved to Constantinople, and Moscow is destined to be the third Rome. And what makes Moscow interesting is that it wants to unite the entire Christian world under its leadership. The main philosopher for the Third Rome strategy is Alexander Dugin who in 1997 wrote a book called "Foundation of Geopolitics." And what he said was this: if Russia is to defeat the Americans, it needs to build alliances throughout Eurasia in order to negate American sea power and aerospace supremacy.

So what are the attack vectors for Russia? The first is the size of the country makes it almost invincible. Think about World War II, Operation Barbarossa. The Germans went into Russia with 6.7 million men and it didn't get very far. The terrain is very important. Then you have the Orthodox religion which is meant to galvanize believers into supporting Russia. The third attack vector is artillery. So Russia has the best land army in the world and we're seeing that play out in Ukraine where a combination of Russian artillery and drones is devastating Ukrainian military. The pawns for Russia are its soldiers. Russia is able to sustain many casualties. If you actually go and interview Russian soldiers, they are probably the bravest soldiers in the world. They are literally not afraid to die for what they believe in.

Now, we go to the Israelis. Jerusalem, the capital, it's a mixed system -- both democracy as well as a theocracy. The Israelis are very creative. But the fundamental weakness is the division within the society where Tel Aviv and Jerusalem don't get along.

The grand strategy of Israel is called the Greater Israel Project. The Israelis believe that the entire Middle East belongs to them from the Nile to the Euphrates because that's what it says in the Bible. This is what God Yahweh promised Abraham. So their intention is to conquer the entire Middle East including Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, even parts of Turkey.

[50:01]

Professor Jiang: The first attack vector for the Israelis is Mossad -- the most powerful intelligence agency in the world. It is able to infiltrate and undermine different political systems. Second attack vector is the Jewish diaspora because Jews do business everywhere around the world and Jewish businessmen work very closely with Mossad, giving them influence in a lot of places. And the third attack vector is the Bible -- if you're a Christian, you believe that the Jews are God's chosen people. So a lot of political support for Israel in the United States comes from a group called Christian Zionists who believe that Israel should achieve the Greater Israel Project because this is part of God's plan.

So now we go to the fourth player in this great game and that's Iran. It is a theocracy. People are not afraid to die for what they believe in Iran. But the weakness is that it can alienate the majority of the population because only a minority are religious zealots. Most people just want to live a decent life. So if they feel that the mullahs, the IRGC, are a threat to their peace and prosperity then they might rise up against the mullahs. Their grand strategy is to unite the Muslim world under their leadership. They have three attack vectors: their proxies -- Hezbollah, Hamas and the Houthis; their asymmetrical warfare using drones and missiles to create as much economic damage as possible; and their geography -- they are a fortress, almost impossible to invade.

So now we're seeing how this entire battlefield unfolds across the world. I've mapped out the grand strategy of these different nation states who will be involved in World War III. Let's look at our present situation. The Russians are occupied with their army in Ukraine -- their infantry, their artillery. At the same time, Russia has something called the shadow fleet -- about a thousand tankers that evade sanctions around the world. That's essentially their navy. America is the most powerful military in the world. They have the most sophisticated aerial supremacy as well as control over the sea lanes and it tries not to use infantry because that creates civilian casualties. The Israelis are essentially a mercenary army aligned with the American Empire, doing the bidding of the American Empire, fighting against Lebanon as well as Iran. The Iranians don't have much of an air force, but they use a lot of drones to threaten.

According to the grand strategy, we can predict how they will make their moves over the next few months or next few years. America doesn't really care about this war in Iran because what America wants to do is force the entire world to become dependent on American weapons and resources, and

[55:04]

Professor Jiang: you do that in two ways. The first is you control the strategic choke points of the world -- the Strait of Hormuz, the Strait of Malacca, the Panama Canal, Greenland, the Strait of Gibraltar. You can see the American Navy expanding outwards and occupying all these maritime choke points. At the same time, you want to use your technological supremacy, your aerial supremacy, your drones to destroy the world's critical energy infrastructure. Already, we're seeing oil refineries being destroyed throughout the world. You're trying to deplete the world's energy inventory so they're forced to beg you for energy. And once this market is created, then you can build infrastructure for Venezuela, take over Canada, control Mexico, take over Greenland.

The Russians have no choice but to respond because if the Americans are controlling the maritime choke points, your shadow fleet is rendered useless. So, how do you ship your oil around the world? Well, you can build railways to unite the Eurasian continent and transport your oil using pipelines and railways. The problem with that is you're now vulnerable to American aerospace drone attacks. So, you have no choice but to arm your shadow fleet. And now what's going to happen is this conflict in the oceans between Russian shadow fleet tankers that are trying to transport oil around the world and these American destroyers who are trying to capture or destroy these shadow tankers.

The advantage that Russia has is that America doesn't have that much naval assets anymore. It used to but not anymore. The other thing is that the world really needs energy. So you can imagine China financing the militarization of the Russian shadow fleet.

Host: Why would the US try and stop Russian boats?

Professor Jiang: Because in this global outlook there are two nations that could provide weapons and resources to the rest of the world -- Russia and America. So if America wants to become dominant, it needs to blockade Russia. The way you do that is by seizing their shadow fleet.

Host: But if that happened, that would be an act of war.

Professor Jiang: But it's already happening. Iranian tankers have been seized by the Americans and tankers are being seized in the Caribbean as well by the American Navy.

Host: Yes. The United States has indeed been seizing tankers linked to Russia. A major escalation occurred earlier this year on January the 7th, 2026 when the US military and Coast Guard intercepted two sanctioned shadow fleet oil tankers. While one was seized directly in the Caribbean, the other involved a dramatic chase that started in the Caribbean and ended in the North Atlantic. US forces captured this sanctioned tanker during a pre-dawn raid directly in the Caribbean Sea. The US military described it as a stateless, sanctioned dark fleet vessel engaged in illicit activities. These seizures are part of Operation Southern Spear, a strict enforcement of the US embargo on Venezuelan oil exports. Both vessels were targeted for violating US sanctions by transporting illicit crude oil linked to Venezuela as well as Iran and Hezbollah.

Professor Jiang: And as you point out, this is an act of war. That's why they're called shadow fleet tankers. Yes. But they're essentially Russian. So what the United States is doing is slowly expanding its global reach. The way it's doing that is by setting treaties with nations that are part of these choke points. So the Malacca recently -- the United States has signed a military cooperation agreement with Indonesia and with Gibraltar, the Americans have signed an agreement now with Morocco -- so they are looking for the legal framework

[01:00:00]

Professor Jiang: justification to control the world's choke points which would bring them directly in conflict with the Russian shadow fleet.

So at some point you think the way that the war starts is the US Navy attacks a Russian boat. I personally believe that this will be a drawn out process and there's no real concrete flash point because not only are Russian shadow fleet tankers being seized but Russian oil refineries are being destroyed by Ukrainian drones. The Russians believe that it is NATO that is responsible for the sabotage.

Host: So when do you think the catalyst moment is when this all kicks off?

Professor Jiang: I think we're already in the catalyst moment. I think we're already in World War III because this conflict is going to expand outwards into a global conflict and there's nothing anyone can do to stop this. Because again you have these different competing visions of how the world should work and the Russians and Americans are already at conflict with each other. So the next step will be the Russians come into this war on the side of the Iranians.

Host: Do you think that's going to happen?

Professor Jiang: I think that's going to happen because according to Russian grand strategy, you have no choice but to save the Iranians because you're trying to promote this view that the world is split between the spiritual and the material. The Americans are the antichrist. The Americans support individual hedonism. Whereas we Russians, we believe in humanity, in goodness, in community. So if that is your argument, if that's your grand strategy, then you have a moral obligation, a moral imperative to help the Iranians in their time of need. And in fact, Prime Minister Araqchi of Iran has recently visited Putin in Moscow. Putin personally received him and said, "We the Russian people admire your determination, your resolve against the Americans." And I think that is a sign that Putin has entered the chat and that the Russians will start to help the Iranians as this war progresses.

So let's go back to the map. The Americans have a three-prong strategy to strangle Iran. The first is use ground forces to establish forward operating bases to incite ethnic violence in the country. The second is to block the Strait of Hormuz and cut off Iranian financing. The third is to strangle Tehran and cause the people to rise up against the government.

If things stay the same as they are now, America wins easily. But if Russia were to enter the war on behalf of the Iranians, the first thing that Russia would do is provide Tehran with reinforcement from the Caspian Sea. The Americans want to knock out Tehran's capacity to provide food, water, and electricity to its people. But through the Caspian Sea, the Russians can support the Iranians. But not only that -- if the Russians were to come in, they could also bring the Chinese into the war on behalf of the Iranians. And the Chinese could use the Belt and Road Initiative -- basically the railway system -- to reinforce Tehran from the east. So now you can no longer strangle Tehran because the Russians and the Chinese are reinforcing it. Then what the Russians could do is provide financing to Iranians. The Chinese and the Russians can say, "Don't worry about financing. We will give you enough financing for you to continue this war for as long as you want."

And the third thing, and this is actually the most important, is that Russia could put Iran under its nuclear umbrella. This would negate the use of tactical nuclear weapons. The Israelis and the Americans, if they really felt under pressure, could always choose to use tactical nuclear weapons. If the Russians were involved, that negates that option. So if the Russians get involved in this war, they bring the Chinese, they provide the resources and the financing to continue this war for as long as it takes. And now the Americans need to expand this war on the world to try to topple the government in Russia because the Russians are the main backers of the Iranians.

[01:05:02]

Professor Jiang: According to the grand strategy of Russia, the Russians have no choice but to get involved because if Iran were to be conquered by the Americans or the Israelis, the entire southern flank of the Russians are now exposed to possible attack. And that's something that the Russians would never allow to happen. Not only that but the Americans already have close relations with Azerbaijan and they already have bases in Tajikistan as well as Uzbekistan. So you can see how once the Americans consolidate this area they can attack Russia from the south.

But what's most important is the issue of global trade -- the counter to America's naval blockade is by creating a Eurasian trade block that involves Iran, Russia and China. Russia's North-South Corridor runs through Iran. If Russia wants to access the Middle East as well as Africa, it has to go through Iran. China's Belt and Road initiative goes through Iran as well. So by taking out Iran, you've blockaded both Russia and China.

[Sponsor: Shopify. Omitted from key analysis.]

[Sponsor: Pipedrive. Omitted from key analysis.]

[01:10:02]

Host: So, when do you think this was going to happen? If you were to give me a timeline of events you think are going to occur, what timeline do you think you're operating under? I guess one of the factors here is that Trump only has what, three years left in power. So, if you're Iran, you might just want to play it out and hope that there's a different leadership in place by 2030.

Professor Jiang: The political leadership in Iran believe that they can wait Trump out. So they're waiting for the midterms because they believe that in November the Democrats will win the midterms and then they will impeach Trump and basically constrain his capacity to fight wars. And worst case scenario, Trump will be gone in 2028.

As you point out, there are certain problems with this. The first major problem is the national defense strategy, which is a long-term strategic framework for how America can control the world. One possibility is that Trump is just creating enough chaos for America to transition. When the Democrats come to power, if they come to power, they will institutionalize the strategy. We know this as a possibility because in Trump's first term, he changed America's strategy around the world. And then when Biden came into power, he institutionalized the strategy vis-a-vis China. It was Trump who launched the tariff war against China and then Biden came into power and institutionalized it. So, I think World War III is a much more long-term war of attrition, and I don't think that this war will end anytime soon.

Host: You've made a series of new predictions. You've made eight new predictions. I'll let you reveal what those predictions are.

Professor Jiang: This is the most controversial prediction. I predict that there will be a US civil war and Trump will get a third term.

Host: You think Trump will get a third term? Isn't that constitutionally illegal?

Professor Jiang: There are things that are unconventional and immoral and wrong and evil and dangerous and there are certain things that are illegal. Trump getting a third term is not illegal. Let me explain the loophole.

What Trump could do is this. There are two possibilities. The first is in 2028 he has his son Don Jr. run as president and he runs as the vice president. And then when Don Jr. wins, if he wins, then Don Jr. could abdicate and Trump would be the president. And in the constitution, if you read it very carefully, it doesn't actually prohibit people from doing that. Another possibility is that by 2028, America is at war with everyone. There's a national draft. The president now has emergency war powers and so he can actually suspend the constitution and delay the election, which is what Zelensky did in Ukraine.

But I think that given Trump's track record, given his personality, I think he very much wants a third term. And I think that he will do everything possible to get a third term. He would turn 83 years old in the same year that he finishes his second term.

Host: This is a man who eats McDonald's hamburgers every day. He doesn't really work out. Yet on the campaign trail, he's able to go to two rallies a day. And in each rally, there's 50,000 people, and he will talk on and on and on. Then at night when he should be sleeping, he's either on Truth Social tweeting about the world or he's calling up reporters and telling them some confidential information. This is a man who is addicted to attention. This is a man who loves the spotlight. He's lived all his life in the spotlight. For him, death is to be ignored. So given his personality, he would rather die in office than live peacefully somewhere else.

[01:15:02]

Professor Jiang: In his mind, he won in 2020. The people voted for him, but the Democrats stole the election with mail-in ballots and by rigging the election machines. He literally believes that. So in his mind he believes that this is actually his third term and the people and the government owe him a second term which is what he wants now.

Host: I find it really implausible to think that Trump would run for a third term.

Professor Jiang: So again this is a prediction. And it is a test of the validity of my theoretical framework.

Host: I was looking at some of the constitutions and the laws and it says that the 22nd amendment explicitly states no person shall be elected to the office of the president more than twice. Some theorists have tried to argue that since the amendment says "elected," a person might be able to serve a third term if they were appointed to succeed to the role.

Professor Jiang: Exactly. If they were appointed or succeeded to the role, e.g. by being vice president first. Legal scholars and the judiciary committee almost universally reject this. The 12th amendment requires that anyone serving as vice president must be eligible to be president since a two-term president is ineligible to be elected again. So they are legally barred from being vice president. But the point is there's nothing explicit in the constitution that bars someone from having a third term -- and there's debate in the legal community about the spirit of the 22nd amendment. It would go to the Supreme Court. And the Supreme Court is controlled right now by the conservatives. Trump appointed three of the nine justices and there's a possibility he gets a fourth later in the year.

Host: Okay. What's your next prediction?

Professor Jiang: My second prediction is there will be a grand bargain between the United States and China. It means that people expect that the United States and China will go to war at some point over Taiwan. But China does not want to do that. China is perfectly happy with America being the world's hegemon because you have to invest so much of your resources into fighting these wars that bankrupt your nation. China doesn't want to fight these wars.

So what China is going to do is try to triangulate between Russia and the United States. This is what happened during the Cold War when China was not actually on the side of the Soviet Union. China was part of the nonaligned community, and that's what China is going to strive for in World War III -- where China may help out Iran, may provide financing for Russia, but it's also going to strike deals with the United States as well.

I think that Trump and President Xi are supposed to meet at least three times, possibly four times this year, only this year. The first will be in mid-May in Beijing. And I think that they will start a process in which China and America come to an arrangement that benefits both economically. What does America want? America wants China to continue to buy US treasuries in order to finance the American debt. What does China want? China wants energy resources from the Western Hemisphere and it wants to access the American market.

So there's no reason why China and America cannot come to an arrangement that benefits both. And Trump is very much a transactional character. And what will that mean for the world? It means that China is not really part of World War III in a meaningful way. China will be friends with both Russia and the United States as Russia and the United States fight each other.

[01:20:02]

Host: Okay. What's your next prediction?

Professor Jiang: Iran is another forever war and the United States will institute a national draft. The logic is this. America doesn't really care if Iran is a theater or not. That's not really part of the American grand strategy. Iran right now is a perfect pretext for America to expand outwards and establish maritime choke points around the world and to force the world to buy American energy. So this war in Iran benefits America tremendously. Why not have it go on for a long time?

In order to make sure this war goes on for a long time, you need ground troops. And you need a lot of ground troops. And that's why you need a national draft. Most people don't appreciate this, but America has always had a draft. But for the longest time, it didn't really care whether or not you actually signed for the draft. And starting in December, participation in the draft will be automatic. Meaning that if you are between 18 to 24 in America and you're male, you'll be automatically put into the draft system.

Host: From when?

Professor Jiang: From December this year. They just passed a law that says that starting December you will be automatically registered for the draft.

Host: How long? 10, 20 years like Afghanistan?

Professor Jiang: I don't see it stopping.

Host: What's next in your prediction box?

Professor Jiang: This is pretty bad. The world will move towards an AI civilian state. For the average person, it means two things. It means digital ID and digital currency. What that will allow is for the government to basically monitor everything you do online and control all financial transactions. It can basically program your bank account so like you can't buy cigarettes or you can't buy drugs. And this will allow the government to basically categorize everyone and put everyone into a certain database to monitor that person. And once you're able to categorize everyone you are able to use AI to predict their behavior.

Host: Isn't this what goes on in some parts of the world? This is what goes on in China.

Professor Jiang: In China, we all have digital ID. If you want to access anything in China, you need your digital ID. So everyone's part of this national database. And then this allows government to basically monitor everything you do because depending on how you buy things I can then extrapolate to figure out your behavior and then I can figure out your thinking. And then I can create incentives in order to guide and control your behavior. Everything you do online is being recorded and it's being inputted into the database to figure out who you are, what you want, and how to control you. And they think this is progress -- I'm making you a better person.

[01:25:00]

Host: Won't you be in trouble if you talk against this system?

Professor Jiang: Well, me personally. I operate in a gray area where I do not interact with the Chinese internet. Everything I do is in English. It's meant for consumption in the Western world. And I don't talk to Chinese reporters. I don't talk to Chinese social media. I have no Chinese media presence and I am not at all influential in China and I prefer that way because if I ever became famous in China then they would obviously want to control me in order to better influence other people.

Host: What's your next prediction?

Professor Jiang: Israel will achieve the Greater Israel Project. Israel has essentially already conquered the Middle East. The only force in their way right now is America. So once America leaves the Middle East, which I expect to happen, then Israel will absorb CENTCOM, which is the central command, the American military bases in the Middle East, and they'll achieve the Greater Israel Project. There's no other power in the Middle East that can withstand the might and power of Israel.

Host: And do you have a timeline for this?

Professor Jiang: The moment America quits this war against Iran, the moment that America leaves the Middle East, Israel will achieve the Greater Israel Project. And what's really interesting right now is that Israel is trying to drag this war out for as long as possible because they see this war as a way to destroy all its major enemies in the Middle East. You know the Israelis have already said this -- after Iran, Turkey is next. This war is already destroying Saudi Arabia and the GCC. The last opponent is Turkey. Once Turkey is brought into this war, then Israel will achieve the Greater Israel Project. The Greater Israel Project goes from the Nile in Egypt to the Euphrates in Iraq -- covering part of Turkey, of Syria, of Lebanon, of Jordan and parts of Saudi Arabia, which also includes Mecca and Medina.

Host: What is your next prediction?

Professor Jiang: NATO and Russia will fight for Odessa. If you look at the Ukraine front lines right now, Russia is preoccupied in trying to control the Donbas, which is basically eastern Ukraine. Eastern Ukraine has historically been part of Russia -- most people there speak Russian or are ethnically Russian. The Donbas is also the agricultural and industrial heartland of Ukraine. So if Russia were to control eastern Ukraine it doesn't really need western Ukraine and western Ukraine would basically become a rump state. The last piece to this puzzle would be Odessa which sits on the Black Sea. The reason why you want Odessa is that it is the major port and once you control Odessa you basically block off Ukraine from the Black Sea. You have complete control over the Black Sea.

But NATO recognizes that if Odessa falls, the war is over and Russia will have achieved all its major strategic objectives. Because Russia doesn't want to continue on after Odessa. It doesn't need the rest of Ukraine. Once it takes Odessa, control of one-third of the world's carbohydrates. If Russia wielded it, Africa would starve to death. The Middle East would starve. Because Russia and Ukraine export a lot of grain to these places. These places are not food independent. They rely on fertilizer. They rely on food imports.

Host: Okay. What is your next prediction?

Professor Jiang: This is the last one. East Asia breaks out into conflict. I think there are three major sources of friction and conflict in East Asia that could be potentially major flash points.

[01:30:00]

Professor Jiang: The first flash point is of course over Taiwan because China believes that Taiwan is part of its territory and so it wants to take over Taiwan. The Prime Minister of Japan has said that Taiwan is core to Japanese strategic interest -- Japan has no resources, it's a manufacturing power that depends on resources from overseas. If China were to take over Taiwan, it can now block Japan from accessing the Strait of Malacca. That is a possibility Japan cannot permit. So Japan would fight to ensure that China and Taiwan were never to unify.

There's another flash point which is the Strait of Malacca -- America wants to control it, but China recognizes that the Strait of Malacca is key to its economic survival. That's flash point number two. The third flash point which I think will be the most surprising but actually will be the most pressing is North Korea.

So let's use game theory. We are the supreme leader of North Korea. It is a dictatorship. Everyone worships me. It's a cult of personality. But we're poor and the rest of the world is in conflict. Europe is fighting with Russia. The Middle East is in flames. America is distracted. Japan and China are fighting over the South China Sea. If you are in North Korea, now is the best opportunity to create as much havoc in the world as possible. There's absolutely nothing anyone can do to stop you.

You are the brawler in high school that no one pays attention to, but because all the big boys are fighting each other, you can come in and dominate the school. Who would they be dominating? They could dominate South Korea because most of the South Korean population is located in Seoul and Seoul is about 20 minutes artillery from North Korea. In 20 minutes North Korea could rain artillery onto Seoul and basically in a day flatten the entire city.

Why wouldn't you extort the South Koreans? Because the South Koreans are going to shoot back. With what? They're being protected by the Americans right now. And the Americans are busy transporting artillery and weapon systems, including a THAAD system, over to the Middle East. It's called THAAD. It used to be in South Korea to protect against North Korea, and now it's over in the Middle East. So, Americans are cannibalizing both South Korea and Japan in order to maintain this war in the Middle East. Now's the time. Why not? It's free money. It's like taking candy from a baby.

Host: But South Korea have their own military.

[01:35:00]

Professor Jiang: My people are poor. They're not afraid to die. In fact, I've sent thousands of them to go to Ukraine to fight for the Russians. And they fight to the death because they're poor and if they don't fight to the death and they're taken prisoner, I'll kill their families back at home. South Koreans are rich. They are used to democracy. They're used to individual rights. So, if I threaten to blow your city up, you're telling me you won't bribe me not to do so? The fastest, quickest way is to bribe me not to cause trouble for you.

Host: Okay. So, you think they're going to bribe North Korea?

Professor Jiang: Extortion. This is extortion. I don't need to destroy South Korea. All I need to do is basically threaten the South Koreans and they'll just bribe me not to do anything.

Host: So, what does all of this stuff mean for the average person? People listening right now, they're just normal people getting on with their lives. They care about their families, their jobs, their futures. What message have you got for them in this new world?

Professor Jiang: We will need leaders. We will need average people who are able to bring hope to people around them, who are able to tell their neighbors, their friends, we have to come together as a community and become a family if we are to survive. That's what the world needs in the future. It will need entrepreneurial leaders. It will need visionaries. It will need prophets. Those who will most thrive are those who make an effort to reach out, knock on the door of your neighbors and say, "Listen, there's a blackout. And there's probably no water. But don't fear because if we come together as a community, if we go and knock on everyone's doors, then everyone in this apartment building, there might be 100 of us. If we just sit down and have a meeting and just discuss what's happening, one of us will come up with a solution and one of us will help everyone else figure out how to find water or how to build a better society." And we know this because historically this has always been true. When empires collapse, infrastructure collapses.

Host: Which empire do you think is collapsing?

Professor Jiang: The United States empire. The United States empire is collapsing. Yes.

Host: And who is taking its place?

Professor Jiang: No one can take the place of the American empire. So we live in a unipolar moment. And the closest historical analogy to today is something called the Bronze Age Collapse. This happened about over 3,000 years ago. And what happened during the Bronze Age Collapse is that you have these established kingdoms throughout the Middle East and Europe. You have Mycenaean Greece. You had the Hittite Empire in Anatolia which is present day Turkey. You had the Mesopotamian Empire. You had the Egyptians. And one by one they collapsed. The reason why was that a perfect storm of calamities came at the same time. There were earthquakes, there were famines, there was a climate crisis, there were wars, there were civil wars, there were revolutions. And so you have this massive surge of refugees called the Sea Peoples flowing from north and west Europe and sweeping the entire Middle East. And the reason why is they were hungry. They didn't have any food to eat. So they organized into these large pirate armies and they overwhelmed entire civilizations.

And so we will see a very similar dynamic play out in the world where in the future our concern won't be wars. Our concern will be these millions of refugees who want to flood into our societies because they're hungry -- and they're going to come from Africa, from the Middle East, probably from South America as well.

[01:40:00]

Host: One might argue that with the rise of things like AI and robotics, the cost of production is going to drop and there's going to be more. Elon talks about the age of abundance and all these kinds of things.

Professor Jiang: But you have to grow food out of the ground and you are using fertilizer to maximize the land's capacity to grow food. You can have as many robots as you want. They don't have to eat food. We have to eat food.

Host: Are you hopeful?

Professor Jiang: I'm very hopeful. I believe that humans are first and foremost creative and resilient and our abilities have become dormant because we've become too complacent. Western lifestyle has made us extremely lazy and fat, but the moment we're presented with a crisis, the moment that we find our families in danger, we're able to come together as a people and come up with all this tremendous imagination in order to make a better society.

[Channel housekeeping: host describes the Diary of a CEO inner circle. Omitted from key analysis.]

Host: Professor, what's the most important thing we haven't talked about that we should have talked about?

Professor Jiang: So let's talk about the nature of reality. To explain the nature of reality, I'm going to explain Plato's allegory of the cave, which he talked about in his book, The Republic. One of the masterpieces of Greek civilization as well as Western civilization. So this is how Plato explains the nature of reality. He uses a metaphor called the cave. So, I want you to imagine a dark cavern that is huge. And in this cavern, there are hundreds of people lined up together. They're all sitting in a row, going on for miles, just thousands of people. And they are chained to the ground. Their necks are shackled, so they can't actually move. And all they can do is stare in front of them at a giant wall that's empty.

Now, behind these people -- and they can't see behind them -- there's a great fire. Alongside this fire are people -- we don't know who they are, Plato never explains who these people are. They take puppets and they project these puppets off the fire onto the wall. And when people see these shadows, they think that this is reality. And as such, they begin to create narratives to explain this reality. They create language. They give shadows names. They explain where these shadows come from. They create religion. Then these people decide to specialize. Some people are priests who explain this new religion. Some are poets that talk about the beauty of the shadows. And then you have teachers who teach about the shadows to children. And then over time what happens is that these people fall in love with this reality so that they are addicted to it. So if anyone comes along and says "hey guys, why don't you look behind you and see it's all just a farce," these people will be so angry that they kill this person.

So what creates this reality are not the people in charge. What creates this reality is our imagination. Everything is a hallucination. And this is something that neuroscientists have confirmed. So what we're going to do is take Plato's allegory of the cave -- the framework -- and apply it to our reality to understand how it's created.

In the first layer you need a power, a force to put people in chains -- this is what we call the military-industrial complex of America as well as the empire. The second step is you need people to create the reality, to direct people's attention, to create the game. And these people are the financial elite, the Bank of International Settlements based in Basel. They set the exchange currency rates and they allow for seamless financial transactions -- the SWIFT system. Then Wall Street and the City of London were the financiers. And then you have the Federal Reserve -- the people who print money.

Now once you create the rules of the game, you need to create the game itself -- which is the global economy. Now you have to explain to people how the global economy works and you cannot tell people there are these secret people working behind the scenes that are projecting shadows onto a wall. So what you do is you create multilateral organizations that pretend to control the global economy -- they are the World Bank, the United Nations, WTO. You make them believe that this is all being controlled impartially for our benefit. Now you have to convince people that this system is legitimate. That's why you need the media. That's why you need culture such as Hollywood movies and you need education -- the school system. These are the people who are all prisoners who have become leaders of the prisoners and who are helping them understand the shadows on the wall.

Host: So am I in the media?

Professor Jiang: Yes, you are.

Host: So what am I doing? Am I one of the people in the fire controlling the narrative?

Professor Jiang: Yes. Yes.

Host: But I'm not owned by anybody.

Professor Jiang: That's what you think.

Host: Oh, really? Who am I owned by?

Professor Jiang: Ultimately, it's the people who control the fire that are in charge. So ultimately, it's the second layer -- the game masters, the financial elite that control everything.

Host: And the financial elite again are like the World Bank, you said.

Professor Jiang: No. No. The financial elite are these private bankers.

Host: Okay. So, are the private bankers controlling me?

Professor Jiang: Do you want to make money?

Host: Yeah.

Professor Jiang: Then they're controlling you. Because they control the creation of money. And so now that you have the media, the schools and the cultural systems helping people understand the shadows on the wall -- these shadows become internalized and they dictate the values and norms of people, what they believe to be good and bad. They dictate habits and customs, how you live your life, and they dictate the legal system, who's punished for what. And this becomes a top-down edifice.

[01:50:00]

Professor Jiang: What's amazing about the system is that in our minds we believe that the foundation is actually the laws, the habits and the values, when in fact in reality these are just figments of our imagination. That's point one. Point two is that this is a very delicate structure. So if anyone doesn't cooperate, then this entire edifice collapses. And the third thing -- and this is most important -- is that as the system becomes much more wobbly, meaning that young people don't really believe in the shadows anymore, young people grow up and say, "Are these shadows really real?" The system needs to become much more authoritarian. It needs to force people to believe what they refuse to believe because everyone in a system is incentivized to ensure this edifice is stable.

Host: Do you think this is somewhat linked to what's going on with independent media?

Professor Jiang: Exactly. And that's why we're seeing governments becoming very worried about independent media because if you have people in the population saying these shadows are fake, this creates a ripple effect. It causes people to start questioning the shadows on the wall. You can't have that. So that's why it's important to have censorship. That's why it's important to deplatform people. That's why you have woke politics, DEI, because it's an enforcement mechanism.

Host: Yeah. I mean, it is pretty hard. You know, it's not easy being an independent podcaster if you have a big platform because you're not always the most loved by the mainstream media.

Professor Jiang: Look, if you look at the system, no one's really in charge and no one's a villain. They just grow up in the system and everyone's protecting their incentives.

Host: Exactly. That's kind of what I mean. Human nature is to protect one's incentives. The media didn't like Mark Zuckerberg and Facebook because 70 to 80% of ad revenue went to Google and Facebook. People are trying to protect what's theirs and disruption causes people to panic a little bit.

Professor Jiang: But the problem is that over time more and more young people are going to grow up and say, "I don't see shadows. I'm pretty sure we're being lied to." In which case, this presents an opportunity to overthrow the system and create a new system. And this is why AI is important. It's really difficult for the average person listening now to accept the fact that they have believed a bunch of fundamental ideas and stories that everything they care about is built upon.

Host: But if you read the book Sapiens and understood that humans got here because we had a remarkable ability to believe in stories that the orangutan could not believe -- it couldn't believe in money and governments and religions -- it makes perfect sense that there are really foundational stories we are accepting and that's what's brought us here today. That's what keeps me from running out on the street without my clothes on -- I'm held in place by a set of stories that I've accepted. But I guess the question becomes, am I okay with this reality? And what's stopping us from creating our own reality that benefits everyone?

Professor Jiang: Well, in theory, it's possible, but there are certain people who are happy with the system and want to maintain the system. And that's why we're going to wars around the world because it's not just a war between different nation states. It's also a war for the fundamental nature of reality. You have the bankers versus the tech bros -- that's what we're seeing in the world right now -- where for the longest time, Wall Street has controlled America. But now with the Trump revolution, you have Palantir, you have people like Larry Ellison, Peter Thiel, Sam Altman who want to create Operation Stargate, which gives them complete control over people's imagination.

And everything will come down eventually because that is just the fundamental fact of human history. Everything, no matter how stable it seems in the beginning, it all comes crashing down eventually.

[01:55:01]

Host: Ray Dalio talks about the cycles through history and how sort of predictable they are. Is there a frequency to the rise and fall of these empires?

Professor Jiang: So they say empires last around 200 years. And so we are now in the twilight of the American empire. And what we know is that when empires decline, it's always for the same reasons -- too much debt, too much corruption, too much inequality. And we're seeing that in America today. And the other thing that we know is you can't actually stop the decline of empires. Oswald Spengler -- a German theoretician -- he argues that we are human beings and we have natural life cycles because we're organisms. Well, societies are the same way where empires will be born, they'll rise, they'll die. And it's a good thing because that's what allows for constant human innovation.

Host: Do you think that will happen in my lifetime? I'm 30 years old, 33 years old.

Professor Jiang: It may happen in everyone's lifetime. It may happen in the next 5 to 10 years.

Host: Do you think that's going to happen in the next 5 or 10 years?

Professor Jiang: I think there's a very strong possibility that the American empire will collapse in the next 5 to 10 years because it is overstretched. It's in too much debt and it is really angering the entire world. It's basically unifying the entire world against it right now.

Host: And if that is to be the case, what would you give me as advice as a 33-year-old? What actions should I be thinking about taking now based on what you know about history to make sure that you know it's not too bad for myself?

Professor Jiang: One theory that's very important to understand is something called Hermetic philosophy. And Hermetic philosophy is what underpins Plato's allegory of the cave. And Hermetic philosophy comes from Egypt and its main principle is that reality is energy. It's vibrations. So we think of it as material when material is a consequence of energy.

What this means is that reality is consciousness itself. So our thoughts are what's real. Our bodies are just vehicles to experience the world around us. When we die, our souls return to the source and we come back again. And we are here permanently in order to experience things we cannot experience in the spiritual world.

So what's really important is to appreciate that every one of us is part of the source. If we think about how individually we can become a better person and how we can impact the people around us, then that becomes reflected onto the reality itself because we're just part of God itself. The idea is as above, so below. As below, so above -- meaning that we are each and every one of us fractals of God. So if we choose to be a good person, this makes the world a better place. If we choose to be a bad person, it also makes the world a worse place.

So it's not really about how can I stop these wars from happening because you cannot. It's not really about where can I put my money to generate more income because that's not going to happen. It's really about how do I live my life to the fullest? How do I become a much more creative individual that brings goodness to the people around me? If you do that, you're changing the world every day for the better.

Host: That's a very nice message. And I agree. It's really interesting. I've spoken to a couple of physicists now who say similar things regarding consciousness. This idea that we're all part of the same consciousness -- a physicist said to me, it's almost like

[02:00:00]

Host: consciousness divided into lots of little pieces so that it could experience the world or view the world.

Professor Jiang: Exactly. Fractals.

Host: Fractals. And I found that to be a really compelling idea. Weirdly, I was in a European country and I was driving in a taxi and I looked out the window and you had all of these tourists just stood at the edge of the water all just looking up and looking around and I just for a second thought of them as like little pieces of consciousness exploring the world -- looking up and looking around and looking at mountains and looking at the ocean and it dawned on me for a second that that might just be consciousness's manifestation for exploration.

Professor Jiang: So, one area that you might want to explore is the Kabbalah.

Host: What is the Kabbalah?

Professor Jiang: It's what they call the tree of life. And in the tree of life, it's a certain dynamic in the world that governs all human affairs. And this dynamic is thesis, antithesis, synthesis. So, God is the will to bestow, creates Adam Kadmon who is the will to receive. And then Adam Kadmon has to abandon God, thus destroying the world. But eventually because the world is destroyed, Kadmon and his descendants -- us -- recognize the folly of our ways and beg God for forgiveness. And this will redeem the world, repair the world. And if you think about it, this is what underpins a lot of actions that is happening in the Middle East where the Israelis are doing what they're doing because they're trying to force the hand of God. Meaning that if Israel is committing all these atrocities in the Middle East, committing all these wars, eventually the world will have to punish the Israelites. There'll be war between the world and Israel and Israel will be humbled. But once Israel is humbled, everyone in Israel will recognize the folly of his or her arrogance, hubris, and then will beg God for forgiveness. And once that moment happens, when all people in Israel at the same time beg God for deliverance and for forgiveness, the world will end and will return to paradise. That's literally what they believe.

Host: Fascinating. We're going to have to stop there, professor. We have a closing tradition where the last guest leaves a question for the next guest, not knowing who they're leaving it for. And the question left for you is, who will you miss the most and why?

Professor Jiang: Well, I will miss my wife the most because I met my wife about 10 years ago and this was a time in my life when I had hit rock bottom. I went to Yale and so I have a very elevated sense of myself and my abilities. And so I went into the world thinking that I would conquer it. And after decades of failure, I basically became very depressed.

Host: Failure?

Professor Jiang: Yes. I meaning I didn't have a job, meaning I didn't have much income, meaning I didn't have much hope in my life. And so I was working as a teacher and then for a mutual acquaintance I met my wife. I think that it was because I became so depressed that my heart begged for relief. I begged God even though I don't believe in God for salvation and redemption. And my wife came as an angel. And what she did that no one else did before was she loved me unconditionally. She was kind to me. She told me to believe in myself. And she proved it by making the ultimate sacrifice and having a child with me. It's one thing for someone to say, "I believe in you. I love you." But it's another thing to have a child with that person. And so that changed me totally and I said to myself, I can't despair anymore. I have to work hard. I have to provide for my family.

And at this time I was thinking that maybe I could help students go to Yale. But she told me, "You can't do that. You have to be true to yourself and you have to be true to our son. Set a good example for him." And so what happened was that I got

[02:05:01]

Professor Jiang: a job as a high school teacher. And then I started to make these YouTube videos and then it blew up online. And this was not something that we expected. It's not something that we planned for. It just happened organically.

So it was my wife just by saying "I love you" to me -- and I knew it to be true because we had a child together, we started a family together -- by loving me unconditionally, by being kind to me, it changed me forever and that's what empowered me to want to share myself with other people as well. And so I don't know how I will ever thank my wife. I'm forever grateful for her and I don't -- before, I didn't really mind leaving this world. But I don't want to leave this world anymore because I don't want to separate from her.

Host: Could you have expected that you'd have the success you've had online? You've got what, almost two and a half million subscribers on YouTube alone. Getting millions and millions of views on your videos. Some of your videos have almost 10 million views on various channels. You've only made 146 of these videos and your channel has grown immensely. Could you have imagined?

Professor Jiang: I did. I did.

Host: You did imagine?

Professor Jiang: Yes. Not this big, but I imagined I would find people who believe in what I was doing and would be inspired by what I was doing. And I knew this because when I met my wife and I fell in love for the first time and we loved each other unconditionally, my imagination started to open up. I could see and feel things that were not available to me before and it was as though I became much more connected to the source. I became much more connected to the universe and the universe was giving me insights as to how to proceed. And so I had one day an inspiration. Let me start a YouTube channel and let me make stupid predictions and see where it goes. Because if I'm right then I would be pretty famous. If I'm wrong then I'm an idiot. But what gave me the courage to imagine all this was again the love of my wife. So that's why I say kindness and love.

So I did imagine this but not to the extent that my YouTube channel has blown up. You've only been doing it about a year. I don't think I've ever seen someone get two and a half million subscribers in a year, especially making geopolitics and history videos in a year. That's crazy. But I will tell you this, it has not changed me because being with my wife, having a family, I know my mission is to share myself with others.

So I could easily create a media education company like Jordan Peterson and start my own university. I don't want to do that. I want to share myself with others. I want to constantly learn. I want to constantly ask questions. I want to be open-minded. I want to be brave for my wife and my family. And so, yes, I did succeed. And I think I thank the universe for letting me succeed. And I thank most of all the fact that I succeeded at an age and at a time when I can focus on the mission and ignore the fame, the wealth, the status.

Host: Are you happy?

Professor Jiang: I'm very happy with my family because it's my wife and my children who bring me tremendous happiness in the world. The YouTube channel -- if they close it down tomorrow and they might -- I wouldn't be at all unhappy because I could just go and create more videos. What matters is the source of my creativity which is the love I have for my family.

Host: That is beautiful. Really beautiful. I mean, the amount of people that showed up in my comment section and demanded that you come here was staggering. In fact, that's actually how I learned about you -- I just saw your name so much in the comment section. So, I was like, who's this guy? And I went on YouTube and looked around and then I found these videos and went down the rabbit hole like everything.

Professor Jiang: Just to warn you, I am a polarizing figure. Some people really love me, but some people also really --

Host: It doesn't matter. Listen, I sit here with people really regardless of that stuff and I think that's important and quite rare. So, you know, I've sat with Kamala Harris or Ivanka Trump or Gavin Newsom or Michelle

[02:10:00]

Host: Obama, and for me it's really about the pursuit of truth rather than being captured too much by all the blocks that we have on the table. So, thank you for doing what you do because you're demystifying and you're giving a perspective to the world. And I think one of the things you do that really has compelled people is you're able to break things down in visual ways that allow people to understand concepts in a simpler way and really to bring them to life in ways that make them actionable and relevant to our lives. And so long may you carry on doing that.

Professor Jiang: And that's a central message that I hope people understand -- everyone has the capacity to learn the truth for himself or herself. It's only a question of desire and will.

Host: Thank you.

Professor Jiang: Thank you.

[Outro: YouTube algorithm recommendation prompt. End of content.]