Jiang Xueqin

Jiang Xueqin
江学勤
Born1976 (age 49–50)
Guangdong, China[1]
CitizenshipCanada[2]
EducationYale University (BA)
OccupationsEducator, YouTuber, blogger
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Last updated: April 13, 2026

Jiang Xueqin (Chinese: 江学勤; pinyin: Jiāng Xuéqín;[ph 1] born 1976)[ph 2] is a Chinese-born Canadian educator and commentator. In the 2000s, he was involved in education reforms in China.[3][4] From 2022 to 2026, he worked as a teacher at Moonshot Academy high school in Beijing.[5] He is also known for his YouTube channel Predictive History, on which he styles himself as "Professor Jiang".[6][7]

Early life and education

Jiang Xueqin was born in Guangdong, China. His father was a high school teacher. At the end of the Cultural Revolution, Jiang's family emigrated to Canada, where they settled in Toronto. His father became a short-order cook, and his mother worked as a seamstress. Jiang recalled in 2026 that he had a poor childhood.[8][9]

Jiang graduated from Yale University with a Bachelor of Arts in English literature in 1999.[9][5][10][11] As an undergraduate, he worked as a teacher at the Affiliated High School of Peking University in Beijing in 1998.[4] He began an interest in guanxi while studying at Yale.[8]

Jiang is a Canadian citizen.[4][2]

Career

After graduating from Yale, Jiang began working for foreign news outlets as a journalist focusing on China. He unsuccessfully applied to multiple major news outlets, including The New Yorker. In 2000, Jiang moved to Beijing where he worked small stints as a freelance journalist.[3][8] Jiang wrote for publications such as the American Christian Science Monitor and the Hong Kong-based Far Eastern Economic Review.[1]

In 2001, Jiang was contracted to conduct an undercover U.S.-funded PBS documentary about the labor movement in China.[12][10] While filming one such protest in Daqing, Jiang was arrested and detained for two days before he was deported from China on 5 June 2002. A friend claimed that he was accused of "making illegal video recordings" and suspected of spying. No charges were filed.[1]

In 2003, Jiang was allowed by Chinese officials to return to China, where he decided to abandon freelance journalism and pursue educational reform instead at "high-profile schools".[10][9]

In 2008, Jiang initiated educational reforms at Shenzhen Middle School in a push for a more liberal system of learning with focus on creativity.[3][4]

Jiang has since held senior administrative and teaching positions at several prominent Chinese secondary schools, including:

  • Deputy Principal, Shenzhen Middle School (2008–2010)[3]
  • Program Director, Peking University High School International Division (2010–2012)
  • Tsinghua University's Affiliate High School (2014)[4]
  • History and Philosophy Teacher, Moonshot Academy Beijing (2022–present).[ph 1]

He was a researcher with the Global Education Innovation Initiative at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts (RSA), and has served on the selection committee for the Global Teacher Prize.[13]

His writing has appeared in The New York Times (Chinese edition), CNN, China Youth Daily, The Wall Street Journal, and The Chronicle of Higher Education.[14]

YouTube channel

In 2023, Jiang created the YouTube channel Predictive History, in which he styles himself as "Professor Jiang" despite not teaching at the university level. The initial intention was recording his classes for his students to review. He describes his channel as employing structural historical analysis, game theory, and concepts inspired by Isaac Asimov's fictional psychohistory to interpret and predict important geopolitical developments.[ph 3][15] Jiang also has a course, Western Philosophy, which he has recorded and uploaded to his YouTube channel.[15]

Jiang's Geo-Strategy episode, "The Iran Trap" (2024), has attracted international attention, predicting the re-election of Donald Trump in 2024 and escalating U.S. involvement in a conflict with Iran (cf. the 2025 and 2026 conflicts) and eventual U.S. loss in a prolonged conflict, the first two of which have come true as of 2026.[15] According to India Today, other analysts had made similar predictions but "Jiang packaged them early and memorably."[8]

After his channel went viral amid the 2026 Iran war, he started appearing on podcasts and online news shows like Piers Morgan Uncensored and The Tucker Carlson Show.[9]

Reception

While some media outlets described Jiang's lecture on Iran in 2024 as prophetic (earning him the moniker "Nostradamus of China"),[9] others criticized the predictions for relying on selective historical analogies, not showing his game theory work, and untestable assumptions.[15] India Today said that his geopolitical analysis glaringly do not feature Chinese foreign policy or internal problems of China even though he resides in the country.[8] In an interview with Mehdi Hasan on Zeteo he said that he uses a VPN to get past the internet censorship in China to access YouTube and other blocked websites, adding "I do not talk to reporters in China because I'm conscious that whatever I say online could be used against me."[7] The South China Morning Post noted that he is mainly popular outside of China, though some of his English-language lectures have been translated and uploaded onto Chinese social media.[9]

The Free Press described Jiang as a conspiracy theorist who has promoted conspiracy theories through his YouTube channel about the Illuminati, Freemasons, Jesuits and Sabbateans controlling the Western world.[6] According to the South China Morning Post, which described some of his lectures as "veering into well-trodden conspiracy theories on shadowy secret societies", in "Pax Judaica", the concluding lecture about Greater Israel of his Secret History series, Jiang has presented a theory that after the US is forced from the Middle East, the Illuminati, an organization comprised of Freemasons, Jesuits and Sabbateans, would control the world from Jerusalem.[9] Yang Meng, assistant professor at Peking University, argues in the National Post that Jiang has promoted the antisemitic notion that Israel has practiced ritual child sacrifice in the Gaza war.[16]

"Professor" moniker

Jiang's usage of the moniker "Professor", as a high school teacher, has also been described as misleading.[8] He has defended the usage saying that he did not initially name his channel as such and only started using the title after fans started calling him by that name.[7]

Publications

  • 创新中国教育 [Creative China]. 2014. ISBN 978-7-5117-2072-6.
  • Schools for the Soul. 2021.[17]
  • "China's media enables tyranny and corruption". CNN. 23 November 2017.

References

  1. 1 2 3 "Canadian journalist expelled for investigating workers' strikes". Reporters Without Borders. 11 June 2002. Archived from the original on 21 February 2026.
  2. 1 2 "我花四年考入耶鲁，却用了十年才走出它带来的迷茫" [It took me four years to get into Yale, but ten years to emerge from the confusion it brought me]. Sohu (in Chinese). 21 July 2021. Archived from the original on 9 March 2026. Retrieved 10 January 2026.
  3. 1 2 3 4 Wei, Xiaohan (11 June 2022). "Bitter Lessons From a Chinese Education Reformer". Sixth Tone. Archived from the original on 14 January 2026. Retrieved 14 January 2026.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 Johnson, Ian (8 April 2014). "Solving China's Schools: An Interview with Jiang Xueqin". The New York Review. Archived from the original on 21 February 2026.
  5. 1 2 "Xueqin Jiang | 江学勤". MOONSHOT ACADEMY. Archived from the original on 18 April 2026. Retrieved 7 March 2026.
  6. 1 2 Page, River. "Meet the Internet's New Iran Expert—Who Thinks the Illuminati Runs the World". The Free Press. Archived from the original on 18 May 2026. Retrieved 9 March 2026.
  7. 1 2 3 Hasan, Mehdi (4 April 2026). "Mehdi Goes Head-to-Head With 'Professor' Jiang, the Internet Sensation". Zeteo. Archived from the original on 24 April 2026. Retrieved 4 April 2026.
  8. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Adhikary, Manish (23 March 2026). "Meet Professor Jiang: The Chinese Nostradamus who doesn't talk about China". India Today. Archived from the original on 24 March 2026. Retrieved 23 March 2026.
  9. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Chen, Meredith (29 March 2026). "Jiang Xueqin, the viral 'prophet' predicting the world's fate from a Beijing classroom". South China Morning Post. Archived from the original on 12 May 2026. Retrieved 4 April 2026.
  10. 1 2 3 Xueqin, Jiang (23 November 2017). "China's media enables tyranny and corruption". CNN. Archived from the original on 27 February 2026. Retrieved 15 March 2026.
  11. ↑ Chaturvedi, Amit (5 March 2026). ""China's Nostradamus" Made 3 Trump Predictions In 2024. 2 Already Came True". NDTV World. Archived from the original on 9 March 2026. Retrieved 5 April 2026.
  12. ↑ "Canadian journalist deported from China". The Globe and Mail. 6 June 2002. Archived from the original on 24 March 2026.
  13. ↑ "Jiang Xueqin". Big Think (Profile page). Archived from the original on 18 September 2025. Retrieved 10 January 2026.
  14. ↑ "Who Is Jiang Xueqin? Professor's viral video from 2024 predicted Trump's return and U.S. role in Israel-Iran war". The Financial Express. 23 June 2025. Archived from the original on 2 March 2026. Retrieved 10 January 2026.
  15. 1 2 3 4 "The Professor Who Predicted Trump's Return and War With Iran". Newsweek. 24 June 2025. Archived from the original on 1 January 2026. Retrieved 10 January 2026.
  16. ↑ Meng, Yang (6 February 2026). "Yang Meng: Moral shortcuts have fuelled the surge of antisemitism in Canada". National Post.
  17. ↑ "Jiang Xueqin". Global Teacher Prize. 23 November 2022. Archived from the original on 12 March 2026. Retrieved 18 January 2026.

Primary sources

  1. 1 2 "江学勤 Xueqin Jiang 英语老师，哲学老师" [Jiang Xueqin, English teacher, philosophy teacher]. Moonshot Academy (Profile page). Archived from the original on 14 October 2025. Retrieved 3 March 2026. 北京市朝阳区林萃路2号国家网球中心莲花球馆 [Lotus Hall, National Tennis Center, No. 2 Lincui Road, Chaoyang District, Beijing]
  2. ↑ "Civilization BONUS: Meet Professor Jiang". YouTube. 12 June 2025. I turn fifty next year
  3. ↑ Predictive History. YouTube. Archived from the original on 26 March 2026. Retrieved 10 January 2026.
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