Amid China’s escalating military harassment of Taiwan, a teaser released on July 23 of the new TV series Zero Day (零日攻擊), a local production portraying a Chinese attack on Taiwan, attracted more than 1 million views in a week, sparking an emotional response and discussions across the nation.
Partly funded by the government and scheduled to air next year, ‘Zero Day’ depicts a Chinese warplane disappearing in the Taiwan Strait and China using the search as an excuse to mount a naval blockade of Taiwan and launch an invasion. The 17-minute trailer shows clips how Beijing could increase its choke hold on Taiwan in the prelude to war, including sparking a financial crash, cyberattacks disrupting infrastructure, sabotage by Beijing’s collaborators, foreigners fleeing, proliferation of fake news and hacking of mass broadcasting systems, with a Chinese news anchor calling on Taiwanese to accept the “peaceful reunification of the motherland.”
The preview has resonated with people and given them a sense of urgency. “We are finally beginning to see problems that many Taiwanese dare not face,” one viewer said, while another said: “It is heavy, because it is possible.”
The trailer has also provoked anxiety and criticism from pro-China politicians and groups, with Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmakers calling the TV show government propaganda to amplify China’s military threats. In this, they are echoing China’s state media, which has accused Taipei of “spreading fear” and has censored all references to Zero Day on social media.
Ironically, the KMT — like the Chinese Communist Party — is an expert on spreading propaganda, honed by decades of governance during the Martial Law period. The public was then forced to watch movies and TV programs produced by state-funded companies to promote patriotism and fight the “evil” Chinese communists. However, the party has since turned its back on those values, and now parrots Being’s call for “peaceful reunification” and avoiding war with the authoritarian regime across the Strait.
Taiwan, especially under the Democratic Progressive Party administration, has long faced difficulties in increasing public awareness about the Chinese threat. While it hopes to raise a sense of alarm to encourage the public to support national defense efforts, it does not want people to end up feeling hopeless about the inevitability of war or defeat.
Zero Day was one of the proposals the Ministry of Culture received for its program on promoting local cultural productions. It received the lowest subsidy among the approved projects and was the only one that dared to touch on the sensitive topic of war that most Taiwanese avoid, virtually guaranteeing that it would be banned in the Chinese market.
“In Taiwan, people think about it [war] all the time, but hardly ever talk about it,” series director Lo Ging-zim (羅景壬) said in an interview. “However, if we do not make that fear tangible, we are going to have a hard time getting people to talk about it.”
Lo added that he hoped the series would create a sense of urgency among the public who have become desensitized to the Chinese threat after decades of facing such pressure.
The government has in recent years drastically increased the national defense budget. President William Lai (賴清德) has pledged to further spend a record NT$647 billion (US$20.03 billion) next year, up 6 percent year-on-year, showing the government’s commitment to enhancing national defense. However, the bigger challenge remains raising public awareness about the Chinese threat and the greater danger of its infiltration of Taiwanese democracy.
To avoid a war, people must know the enemy and be prepared. Zero Day has ignited a spark illuminating tensions across the Strait. We need to strengthen collective vigilance and our determination to defend our country.
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