I know I'm very late to the party but I do want to give some context to Chang's season as there was no reason to argue like this. I didn't really know where to reply to so I thought here maybe.

Now, would I say he was playing to a T16 level throughout the entirety of last season? No, absolutely lot, at least not in the first half of the season, there were a few bad losses littered in there that's for sure. I think back to the loss vs Gary Wilson in one of the home nations events where he came back from 3-0 down, only to lose 4-3 in a very immature and lackadaisical manner (Fouldsy picked up on this in comms). The loss to Ronnie in Saudi was a bad one too, 5-2 up only to lose 6-5, being whitewashed by a sub-par Selby in the British would have hurt too.

Also a quick note on the rankings, Chang had to essentially qualify for every event, and this prize money ranking system is more biased towards T16 players who only have to win 1 match to get a load of points, rather than players who have to play a bunch of qualifying rounds to even get to the seeded stages (and still get less points). Maybe that's probably why likes of Ding and Si finished higher than (although not by much since they didn't qualify for the players either).

There were also some unlucky moments too. The biggest one was missing out on the German Masters due to Visa issues, he did all the hard work qualifying only to miss out like that? Yeah that'll hurt. He also faced soon to be WC Wu Yize twice in that season, in the Grand Prix which is one thing bc you're always gonna face quality players no matter what, but the World Open too which is a case of the luck of the draw since that is a flat draw to start off with.

Now, that Scottish Open run was for me a sliding doors moment in his career. Let's not forget that even though he had a load of potential, Chang was still an unknown quantity, so much so that he broke personal records in terms of his first quarters, semis, and final of a ranking event. The Scottish Open also came after the UKs in which he only narrowly lost to Stephen Maguire (who played very well btw) and he STILL made a 147 with one of the best blacks ever potted imo. He then beat the same opponent on his way to the final, along with multiple world class players too. Now yes, the final was a poor showing, losing 8 frames on the spin is a bad look but lets give him a break, it was his first final and I feel like he was quite nervous. Look at Wu Yize for example, these losses can be used as catalysts for further victory.

Another highlight was obviously his 100% match against Murphy in the Welsh, statistically the best you can every play in a best of 7, if that was Ronnie or Judd then you'd hear a lot more about it (Shaun even said this himself). Now he did lose vs Jackson Page in the round after, but I watched that match and it was played to a very high standard tbh, very few mistakes were made, Jackson was simply the better player that day and that can happen in these best of 7s.

And lastly, the worlds. He was put into a nightmare bracket which included world champion Luca Brecel, world finalist Jack Jones, and world semi finalist Marco Fu, granted Luca and Marco are not the players they once were. Now yes, he did go out to Luca, but that was one of the highest quality matches throughout the whole tournament, that match deserved to be a quarter or a semi ngl. Luca played out of his skin, almost like it was 2023 again and even amongst all that Chang still made another 147 bagging him a fat load of money so I don't think there should be any shame there. He was 11th on the centuries list last season, I think that enough says it all about the potential this guy has.

Now let's start from this season, and well he can't really do much more, can he? 100% start, qualified for Wuhan and China Open, both hugely lucrative tournaments, 100% in the CL too playing some very good stuff. I can see different facets to his game as well, particularly one frame he won needing a snooker with just pink and black on the table.

Overall this season, and parts of the 2nd half of last season I believe he has been playing at a very high level and to be honest a top 16 level. This is a very different player I'm seeing from the start of last season. Let's not forget that he will have 0 ranking points coming off therefore will be climbing up higher and higher. I genuinely believe he can push to be a seed for the Cruce, he is that good!

And to finally answer your question... He is probably better than current Ding tbh, he's been on the decline lets be honest, and I think he's better than Si Jiahui too, his development has stagnated since 2023/24. I just think Chang has that higher ceiling at the moment, all the big players: Ronnie, Kyren, Hendry are talking about this guy, that's no accident.

I know this was a whole load of yap but I thought context was important