Shocking Truth About China Told by an American | Cyrus Janssen

Meet Cyrus Janssen, an American who lived in Mainland China for 7 years and Hong Kong for 3 years. He runs a YouTube channel with over 700k subscribers, focused on China. In our chat, Cyrus shared the biggest misconceptions about China in the US, the future of Chinese-American relations, and what it’s like living in China as an American. Enjoy!

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TIMESTAMPS:
00:00 INTRO
00:38 The biggest misconception about China
03:04 First time in China
04:40 Knowns about China before moving
05:24 Why learn Mandarin Chinese
12:19 Attitude towards Americans in China
13:46 The view on America now
16:50 China-America relations
18:18 The future of China-America relations
20:52 Will a war begin?
25:05 The situation with Taiwan
26:58 Ambiguity vs. clarity
27:39 Can YouTubers change the world?
31:30 Being a YouTuber filming about China
34:26 Cyrus's YouTube strategy
36:41 How to succeed on YouTube
38:13 Life principles
41:00 The meaning of life

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Hey! This channel bridges the gap between locals and foreigners all over the world. Join Max as he interviews expats, unraveling their unique stories and providing valuable insights into their lives in the vibrant places of Asia. Through engaging conversations, Max fosters understanding and appreciation between locals and the global community, focusing on cultural exchange.

[CyrusJanssen]

Max, it was an honor to sit down with you for this interview! I'm a huge fan of your channel and really love what you are doing! What a pleasure to meet you in Malaysia, I'll definitely come to Singapore in the future and look forward to recording more videos together my friend! Thank you so much

[MarkinChina]

I can relate to everything Cyrus says. I have lived in Dali, China, for 9 months now, from the UK, and everything he says is true.Peace

[luminus]

What he had said is absolutely true, visit China and you realise how developed they are, beautiful friendly country🎉
Greetings from France!!

[mikemooney]

I’ve lived in China as an expat for 15 years working in a British university, it’s been the experience of a lifetime. It’s the safest country I’ve ever lived in and it has a wonderfully curious and educated people. I would advise everyone who is inclined, to visit china and experience the friendliness of its people and the depth of its culture, you will never forget it.

[Aki-ynpg]

I’m Singaporean. I first visited China in 1997 till now 2024. It was a totally different China back then but already it was a sleeping dragon beginning to wake up and take the world by storm. Today China has transformed so much and flourished by leaps and bounds. Many have walked out of poverty and standards of living have improved so much. In fact they are doing better than most countries . I visit China often and always look forward to go back because it’s so diverse and fascinating. There are a lot more potential for growth in many aspects. They have the vast fertile lands, state of the art technologies, great infrastructure, digitally and IT savvy, hardworking and very talented people, always hungry for new technology and creativity.

The Chinese minds are sharp and nimble. They have good entrepreneurship capabilities and are very resourceful. They can think of ways to work against the odds and survive even in the most undesirable situations. That’s in their blood since centuries back. Do not underestimate them.

[MarkBourne]

I’ve lived in China since 2007 and fully agree with Cyrus’s comments about the country. As an Australian, I can confidently say I enjoy living in China far more than I ever did in Australia.

Australia, along with much of the world, has completely misunderstood China. In my view, the Western world feels embarrassed by what China provides for its people—things that many Western nations fail to offer their own citizens.

[malcolm]

I love his contents, and as someone from a South East Asian country Ithink Cyril is right most of the time. The freedom that he enjoys in China is what I would like to call as 'Asian freedom' where the gov allows you to do and be whatever you want, as long as it does not come at a cost of stability and cohesion of the society, kinda like the one you have in Singapore.

[xeonmike]

I'm a Canadian who's spent half of my life in Canada and the other half in Hong Kong and I've seen the changes in China since the 1997 handover. I can say I'm 100% agree with what you said about the misconception and the impact from the media. Many of my colleagues are from Europe and they are very surprised to experience that you can be on the streets at midnight and still feel safe without worrying about pick pockets etc, largely due to the CCTVs have deterred these petty theft. They're even more surprised that in Guangzhou if you're in cab and stuck in traffic for over 15mins, the cab automatically calls in the police to sort out the traffic jam, it's fully automated without any intervention from the driver. That you can literally buy even street food just with a digital wallet and scanning a QR code without any physical cash. All these are unheard of day back in the 80s. Also many people seems to have forgotten that why US enjoyed such a prosperous time back in the Bill Clinton era was due to China being the world's manufacturer had taken up all the cheap labour work so that people in the US can enjoy such high standards of living because the goods are cheap, referring back to your iPhone example.

Thanks for sharing your experience and trying to promote a more accurate view on what China is really now and how things have changed. Keep it up!

[HKChineseCanadian]

Nice to hear an honest voice regarding China. I went there recently with my daughter from Canada. China was the most beautiful and amazing country that we ever visited. We are planning another trip back next year!

[jinshensoon]

Went to New York last year, and China recently.

This is in central and southern Manhattan btw, US, the smell of urine mix with human shit and marijuana 8am in the morning with needles and homeless laying around while China is squeaking clean, no homeless in Beijing just tons of crowd.

I think US is a place you can do whatever you want, but nothing is guaranteed. China is a place you play nice and be hardworking and not entitled, you will likely be alright.

Both places have their charm, but as an Asian, I would prefer be nice, be respectful and hardworking and have a balance life than to deal with shit

[dimsumyen]

Watching it from HK where I was born and raised but had lived abroad for almost 30 years … NewYork, California, Switzerland, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Taiwan, Singapore, Shanghai and Shenzhen. Thank you so much for speaking the truth.

[SamyBarnat]

Seeing people from USA like him with nuance open minded and more importantly fair considering the whole world not only their nation gives me hope for humanity thank you for existing sir.

[insomniacfirehorse]

Im an Asian, I used to work in China for 8yrs, within that time I dont have any bad experience, when i leave a tip to the resto they running behind me to return, how many time I left my mobile in taxi and shop, im getting it back. I walk midnight alone im the road, too safe, in US either i will be a waitres or a janitress, in China I worked as a office manager. $80k usd after tax, not including 2x bonus equivalent of a month salary

[sinos]

Australia here, love both your channels. Thanks for all your great contents!

[KatJade]

I watched both channels, Max Chernov and Cyrus Janssen. Singaporean 🇸🇬 here. 😊

[eliseosancheztrasobares]

I also went to China in 2007, I lived there for 5 years, the best years of my life. I follow Cyrus and I agree with what he is saying about China

[CraigSalmonowicz]

Great interview. Cyrus is spot on. I have been in Shanghai over 14 years and have experienced everything you discuss. Keep up with the great content!

[youtubetebie]

I am a subscriber of Cyrus Janssen but I rarely watch his videos maybe once in a while for like 2 minutes BUT I watched this video 42 minutes without a pause till the end 😊 excellent content, the best from both of you 😊

[zhangmw]

Cyrus Janssen. Your success model is a symbolic model of how people from diverse cultures and race should embrace shared learning and respect rather than placing one-self above the rest, and that's how the imbalance arise between current US & China relationship. Congratulate you for being outwardly spot-on to venture into China at young age and cast a remarkable journey that you'll never forget till you aged. Your encouragement for more American young people to replicate your journey is encouraging and if you could add a portfolio to lead them to China to start anew a life where you started, you would have been a great ambassador to bringing world peace and joy. Great job Cyrus.

[jasxteo]

He is true about Americans who stay in the country and don’t have passport. Reminded me about that senator who don’t know where is Singapore.