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.
China has not been a top-tier issue for much of the second Trump administration. Instead, Trump has focused considerable energy on Ukraine, Israel, Iran, and defending America’s borders. At home, Trump has been busy passing an overhaul to America’s tax system, deporting unlawful immigrants, and targeting his political enemies. More recently, he has been consumed by the fallout of a political scandal involving his past relationship with a disgraced sex offender. When the administration has focused on China, there has not been a consistent throughline in its approach or its public statements. This lack of overarching narrative likely reflects a combination
US President Donald Trump’s alleged request that Taiwanese President William Lai (賴清德) not stop in New York while traveling to three of Taiwan’s diplomatic allies, after his administration also rescheduled a visit to Washington by the minister of national defense, sets an unwise precedent and risks locking the US into a trajectory of either direct conflict with the People’s Republic of China (PRC) or capitulation to it over Taiwan. Taiwanese authorities have said that no plans to request a stopover in the US had been submitted to Washington, but Trump shared a direct call with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平)
Heavy rains over the past week have overwhelmed southern and central Taiwan, with flooding, landslides, road closures, damage to property and the evacuations of thousands of people. Schools and offices were closed in some areas due to the deluge throughout the week. The heavy downpours brought by the southwest monsoon are a second blow to a region still recovering from last month’s Typhoon Danas. Strong winds and significant rain from the storm inflicted more than NT$2.6 billion (US$86.6 million) in agricultural losses, and damaged more than 23,000 roofs and a record high of nearly 2,500 utility poles, causing power outages. As
The greatest pressure Taiwan has faced in negotiations stems from its continuously growing trade surplus with the US. Taiwan’s trade surplus with the US reached an unprecedented high last year, surging by 54.6 percent from the previous year and placing it among the top six countries with which the US has a trade deficit. The figures became Washington’s primary reason for adopting its firm stance and demanding substantial concessions from Taipei, which put Taiwan at somewhat of a disadvantage at the negotiating table. Taiwan’s most crucial bargaining chip is undoubtedly its key position in the global semiconductor supply chain, which led
RSS