On the boulevard in front of the presidential palace in Taipei this weekend, Taiwan’s worst nightmare was unfolding in front of film crews. A crowd of actors and extras portrayed one kind of chaos that might come with a Chinese invasion: a protest descending into violence and bloodshed.
The scene being shot was for “Zero Day,” a new Taiwanese television drama series that depicts an effort by China to take over the democratically governed island. Beijing has long claimed Taiwan as its territory and urged it to peacefully accept China’s sovereignty. The Chinese leader, Xi Jinping, has said he would not rule out using force to absorb it.
“Zero Day” will not air until next year, but it has already set off heated debates in Taiwan, after the release of a trailer. Supporters of the series say it could encourage a much-needed conversation about the threat that China poses. Critics have denounced it as scaremongering.
Cheng Hsin-mei, the producer of “Zero Day,” said she wanted to jolt Taiwanese people out of what she sees as widespread complacency and reticence about the possibility of war.
“How everyone would really face up to a war, how you would confront that possibility — nobody’s actually talking about that,” Ms. Cheng, who is also a main scriptwriter for the series, said in an interview. “I want to talk about it, because I think it’s the biggest fear in each Taiwanese person’s heart.”
The show “Zero Day,” a 10-episode series, imagines how China could mount a blockade around Taiwan, then try to overrun the island, a possibility that many experts see as increasingly plausible.
The drama follows a Taiwanese television presenter, an online celebrity, a (fictional) president and president-elect and other characters as they confront a weeklong Chinese campaign. The blockade leads to shortages on the island, looting and financial meltdown. Foreigners are evacuated. Finally, as Chinese troops land, fighting ensues. The characters wrestle with whether to flee or stay, and whether to collaborate or resist. The tone is somber, to judge from the show’s 17-minute trailer, which was issued online before the series had finished shooting.
“Nothing in reality is black and white,” said Janet Hsieh, who plays a Taiwanese president-elect in the series. “It is highlighting the complication of situations, of families, of a lot of the political things that are happening.”
Despite the extensive policy research that has been done about the risk of an invasion of Taiwan, until now, no movie or television drama has explored these questions for a wider public, apparently because of the topic’s political contentiousness.
Some Taiwanese actors turned down roles in the show, Ms. Cheng said, out of concern that they would be blacklisted by China or lose sponsors. The owners of some buildings or sites pulled out of agreements for scenes to be shot on their premises, apparently worried about courting controversy.
Critics, mostly from Taiwan’s opposition, said “Zero Day” amounted to propaganda for the governing Democratic Progressive Party, which firmly rejects Beijing’s claims to the island. Politicians from the opposition Nationalist Party, which argues for stronger ties with Beijing, pointed out that Taiwan’s Ministry of Culture and a government-linked fund invested in the production, and that scenes were filmed at Taiwanese military sites and inside the presidential palace.
“This is totally using the power of the state for Democratic Progressive Party propaganda,” Jaw Shaw-kong, a vice-presidential candidate for the Nationalists in this year’s election, told reporters. “It’s tantamount to an election ad.”
Lo Ging-zim, one of the 10 directors involved in the series, each directing one episode, said it was normal for Taiwanese television and film productions, including comedies and horror movies, to win some government funding. He said the government had not sought to influence the direction of the drama.
Mr. Lo said he was inspired to join the “Zero Day” project after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The characters in the series will grapple with measures that China may use to destabilize Taiwan, like flooding the internet with disinformation, Mr. Lo said. In the trailer, as the Chinese blockade begins, rumors claiming that the president of Taiwan has fled are shared on social media.
“In a real-world scenario, Beijing will wage political, psychological and legal warfare against Taiwan to sow divisions and confusion among Taiwan’s public,” said Brian Hart from the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington and an author of a new study of how China could try to blockade Taiwan. “I think that is a big part of what this show is trying to emphasize to viewers. That’s important because deterring and resisting Chinese attacks requires more than just military capabilities.”
The scene recently shot in front of the presidential palace dramatized one way that might happen. As a crowd of Taiwanese protesters calls for peaceful compromise with Beijing, pro-China infiltrators provoke divisions, setting off fights that prompt the police to step in.
“If there was too much heroics, that would a bit too far into fantasy,” said the director of the episode, Wu Zi-en. “It would be a bit too out of step with reality.”
Chris Buckley, the chief China correspondent for The Times, reports on China and Taiwan from Taipei, focused on politics, social change and security and military issues. More about Chris Buckley
Amy Chang Chien is a reporter and researcher for The Times in Taipei, covering Taiwan and China. More about Amy Chang Chien
source nytimes