57. “Zero Day Attack”: a TV show on Chinese invasion of Taiwan

We speak to Hsin-mei CHENG, producer of the 2025 television series “Zero Day Attack” (零日攻擊) - a 10-episode drama that imagines Taiwanese internal divide and cohesion after the Chinese PLA have launched an invasion of Taiwan.

She speaks about her experience developing the show and the challenges of censorship and self-censorship in the creative industries in Taiwan.

Hsin-Mei CHENG (鄭心媚) is an award-winning screenwriter of television drama that often tell stories of Taiwanese society after WWII. She began her career as a print journalist covering national disasters and crises, most notably the 921 Earthquake in 1999 and the SARS outbreak in 2003.

The episode was recorded on August 3, 2025, one day after the release of the first episode. 

The term Zero-Day (Z Day) that’s used to describe the notional date of a Chinese invasion of Taiwan was first used by American security analyst Ian Easton in his 2017 book, “The Chinese Invasion Threat”. He laid out the Zero Day scenario: first by blockade, then amphibious landing, then a total takeover of Taiwan. 

In computer terms, Zero-Day (0-Day) is a security flaw of the software, hardware, or firmware that’s unknown to developers, thus creative a vulnerability against cyberattacks. 

CHENG explains that for Taiwan, the most vulnerable period would be the four months between a presidential election (January) and the inauguration of a new president (May). 

And this is exactly the setting for “Zero Day Attack”.

Each episode is about a different aspect of society: military, media, cyber attack, religious and business communities, etc; to imagine how Chinese infiltration would affect the mindset of the Taiwanese public. 

Developing the series was not an easy task. 

CHENG discusses how self-censorship in the creative industries have typically prevented political stories from being developed, funded, and produced. In her decade-long experience as a screenwriter, it had been a common experience to receive contracts requiring cast and crew to not make public statements on political issues, for fear of jeopardizing a production’s distribution in China. 

Potential funders shied away from the “Zero Day Attack” project. Many actors - or in some cases, an entire acting agency - refused participation. To this day, half of the crew members have stayed anonymous. 

Since the release of the series on August 2nd, rumors have spread that crew members who participated in the show are now blacklisted from work with some production houses. 

“Zero Day Attack” (2025, 10 episodes) premiered on Public Television Service in Taiwan on August 2, 2025. It’s available for streaming in Japan through Amazon Japan; and in Taiwan on PTS+, Line TV, MyVideo, and Hami Video.

(Global premiere for Episode 1 was in May 2025 at the Copenhagen Democracy Summit.)

Research and editing by Wayne Tsai, Zack Chiang, and Vera Wu.

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