Taiwanese TV show ‘Zero Day’ on potential Chinese invasion sparks fears of reprisal
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The series aims to show how an invasion on the island nation would really come about. As China ramps up military drills around Taiwan, a new Taiwanese television series is hoping to depict not only what a Chinese invasion on the island nation may look like, but also the choices its residents would have in the event of war.
![[A screengrab from the trailer of Zero Day]](https://static.independent.co.uk/2024/12/23/10/Screenshot-2024-12-23-162315.jpg)
The 10-part show, titled Zero Day, is perhaps the first show in Taiwan that shows what an actual invasion by China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) would look like, a threat that has loomed over the island for decades. Earlier this month, Taiwan saw days of heightened military activity; according to Taiwan’s defence ministry, China sent 10 military aircraft and seven aircraft toward Taiwan. China considers Taiwan as part of its territory, and president Xi Jinping has vowed to unify the island with the mainland, by force if necessary.
Zero Day’s 17-minute trailer, which was released on 23 July 2024, made headlines in the media and has been viewed over two million times on YouTube. The series’ plot begins with a Chinese warplane disappearing from the southern part of the Taiwan Strait, which China uses as a pretext to impose a total blockade on the island. Over the following week, Taiwan’s communications and financial systems crash and coupled with fake news and deep fakes, Taiwanese people are no longer sure what to believe. Even as chaos reigns, the Taiwanese navy finds a survivor from the Chinese plane and learns that the aircraft’s disappearance was planned a week before the titular zero day of the actual invasion.
