Bizarre Historical Conspiracy Theories Know no Language

If there is a universal, international language–no, not Esperanto–in 2026, then surely it is the medium of online, social media-driven conspiracy theories. It doesn’t matter if it’s white nationalists tricking themselves into believing that Christopher Nolan’s Odyssey is going to be a spectacular box office bomb because people are angry about casting, or the online left reacting in the moments after an apparent assassination attempt to spin up convoluted false flag theories rather than believe that angry fools could possibly possess guns. No matter the theory du jour, the call to conspiracy crosses every possible political, demographic and cultural divide, the only requirement being that one must always double and triple down. What’s that, you say The Odyssey just crossed $1.4 billion at the box office? I’m sure there’s some way I can reconcile that with my other contradictory beliefs; give me a minute to think!

One thing that might be even tougher to reconcile with reality, but no less believable all the same? The fact that the Chinese government is apparently in the middle of cracking down on social media users nationwide right now, thanks to the spread of a bizarre conspiracy theory that contends roughly 300 years of the nation’s imperial history never actually occurred. On one hand, it’s amusing to think that some of the citizens of a repressive authoritarian regime are attempting to deny an entire period in their history that is longer than the entire existence of the United States. But on the other hand, it truly is a “we’re all alike, deep down” moment, because there’s no way you can look at the rationale of some of the people in this story and not be immediately reminded of the willful disregard for reality that has likewise infected American life. The names are different, but the delusions are nearly identical.

To think people didn't believe me when I said that Americans and Chinese are very similar. https://t.co/Q8hDNaCd6F pic.twitter.com/EnrVd5Yvuu

— Yuan Yi Zhu (@yuanyi_z) August 20, 2026

This particular conspiracy theory revolves around a period of imperial Chinese history known as the Tang Dynasty, which ruled portions of mainland China for nearly 300 years in a period between 618-907 AD. The Tang Dynasty has been referred to as a “golden age” of early Chinese political and cultural influence, when a flourishing trade on the Silk Road first brought many international discoveries and foreign travelers to and from the empire. The conspiracy theory, exemplified in social media hashtags with pithy names like “The Tang Dynasty Doesn’t Exist,” argues exactly this–that the entire period is some kind of elaborate fraud perpetrated by modern propagandists. It likewise contends that the eventual Song Dynasty (960-1279 AD) actually began hundreds of years earlier, in the period that generations of historians and archaeologists have attributed to the Tang. The theory reportedly began spreading like wildfire on China’s Twitter-proximate social media site Weibo in the last few months, following an initial post from a “history influencer” named Qiao Yu, who purported to offer (misinterpreted) astrological data that proved the Tang Dynasty was all some kind of exceedingly contrived hoax. That initial post has since been viewed and shared in numbers CNN put in the tens of millions, with reports that the tourism bureau in Xi’an (the ancient Tang capital) was getting calls from angry citizens demanding it shutter its doors because they just heard the Tang never existed.

What would be the point of starting such a conspiracy theory, if done intentionally, and who would stand to benefit? Would you believe it might come down to good-old-fashioned nationalism and xenophobia? According to CNN, historical depictions of the Tang Dynasty have been the target in the past of criticism and attempts at historical revisionism by Chinese nationalists, owing to the fact that the founding emperor of the Tang was not part of the Han ethnic group that today makes up more than 92% of the population of China. The succeeding Song dynasty, on the other hand, has ethnic Han origins, and is thus easier to reconcile with a modern nationalist’s preferred view of history. Or in other words, it’s a theory that could appeal to people in China who want to erase some part of the historical legacy of a minority group.

The idea that the Tang Dynasty didn't exist has taken hold among some extremely online people in China.
“This is basically insane,” said William Kirby, professor of China Studies at Harvard.
edition.cnn.com/2026/08/19/s…

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— Nine Dragons (@ninedragons.bsky.social) 5:11 AM · Aug 20, 2026

At the same time, though, it seems that the Tang Dynasty conspiracy theory also appeals in a more general way to younger segments of the population, who feel that the cratering Chinese economy and unempathetic government have left them behind as a lost and unrepresented generation. Presumably, they see anything allowing them to lash out against Big Brother as welcome, even if that’s in the form of swearing 300 years of history never happened. A 24-year-old Beijing resident cited only as “Callum” gave the following, eerily familiar quote as rationale for why he believed some of his peers had been so eager to jump onboard with conspiracy thinking: “It is a way for people to attack the established authorities. It is almost like saying ‘those so-called experts are nothing special. They have all been misleading people. I am the one who understands the truth, and I have exposed them all.'”

In the years I spent writing about the rise of of highly online conspiracy sects such as QAnon after the 2020 election–now absorbed entirely into the mainstream MAGA movement–this is exactly the type of foundational attitude I encountered in pretty much every one of those spaces, that vague sense that they were valiantly sticking it to the man and rebelling against poorly defined, shadowy overlords. Conspiracy appeals to people because it allows them to feel as if they’ve been made part of a club with secret knowledge, inflating their sense of importance and self worth. It takes the resentment a person feels toward the world, or the feelings of inadequacy they’re struggling with, and tells them that actually, they’re one of a select, special few who is going to usher in a new age of truth and beauty, largely through the sharing of memes and hashtags. That’s an intoxicating promise.

Sharp-eyed internet folk with a fascination for conspiracy culture in general might also note a certain similarity: The years covered by the “Tang Dynasty doesn’t exist” theory, 618-907 AD, are awfully similar to a prior existing pseudohistorical conspiracy theory known as the “Phantom Time Theory,” espoused by German author Heribert Illig in the 1990s. The enigmatic Illig had an even more radical theory, claiming that the entirety of European history from the years 614-911 AD had been fabricated generations later in a plot by Holy Roman Emperor Otto III and Pope Sylvester II to make their lifetimes line up with the year 1000 AD (really). Effectively, his theory claimed that the entire era of the Early Middle Ages between 614-911 AD and all the historical events that supposedly happened in that time (including the existence of Charlemagne) was all fiction, and that the church and every European government had successfully coordinated on covering this all up until his genius ass sussed it all out in 1991. Naturally, Illig’s theory also ignores the overwhelming evidence offered by scientific dating, archaeological sites, astronomy records, and corroborating calendars from the other side of the globe, but it does offer a historical fraud window that is quite close to the Tang Dynasty one. It doesn’t take a whiz to raise the suggestion that some Chinese nationalists familiar with Illig’s conspiracy theory might have seen an opportunity to boost their narrative by simply adapting it to their own country.

My absolute favorite conspiracy theory is the “phantom time” conspiracy theory, which claims that the Holy Roman Emperor Otto III and Pope Sylvester II colluded to add nearly *three centuries* to the calendar, so that Otto III could be Holy Roman Emperor during the year 1000.

— Lilah Sturges (@lilahsturges.com) 4:57 PM · Apr 17, 2025

The Chinese government, meanwhile, isn’t simply going to take the spread of a damaging online conspiracy theory laying down, although at the same time their attempts to repress it could simply lend it legitimacy in the eyes of certain segments of the population. Regardless, they’ve gone scorched earth in the ways you would expect: The original influencer who spread the most popular posts on the conspiracy theory has had all of their content taken down, and searches for hashtags related to the Tang Dynasty theory on Chinese social media now return state content condemning the theory. Official state media arms have likewise issued proclamations and editorials related to the spread of the theory, with Shanghai’s The Paper writing the following: “Only when rational inquiry becomes the foundation of public life will historical nihilism truly lose the conditions that allow it to flourish.” That term, “historical nihilism,” is a favorite of the authoritarian government to describe any public dissent toward the country’s history or past actions. Suffice to say, they’re not too fond of it.

Given the setting–a stagnant economy and deeply repressive government that wants to bottle up all dissent–you can almost understand how feeling like a part of any group giving a collective middle finger to the cherished, enshrined historical record might be alluring. As comforting as it might be to flip off every professional archaeologists and insist that you’ve got the real deets on the year 618 AD, however, that kind of delusion doesn’t help anyone at the end of the day. It is, however, a type of delusional thinking that sadly unites us as a species, regardless of our circumstances, culture or level of education. A lot of us just want a secret history to call our own.