Latest news with #ZeroDay
News.com.au
19-05-2025
- Entertainment
- News.com.au
Angela Bassett hopes to inspire first US female president
The 66-year-old star can be seen playing US President Erika Sloane in blockbuster film Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning this summer, and also played President Evelyn Mitchell in the Netflix series Zero Day. Bassett, who has been Oscar-nominated twice, hopes that a woman will be voted into office in the USA one day soon. She told PEOPLE, "Whenever I'm portraying them, I'm hoping and waiting for the day where life will imitate art. We're not there yet, obviously." "Maybe (it's) for some people to see representation.'
Yahoo
19-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Creators of Taiwanese TV show imagining Chinese invasion warn island needs to prepare
Supermarkets in Taiwan are chaotically emptied as tampon stocks run low. Tanks rumble down city streets as clueless citizens look out of bus windows. Shipping and semiconductor stocks are plunging. 'The drastic move from the Chinese army has led to a complete halt in international shipping in the Taiwan Strait,' TV news presenters declare. A social media influencer munching on chocolate ice cream asks her followers to support a peace agreement. 'You think we could win? We know we can't,' she says. 'That's why we are so afraid.' A new drama series that imagines the Chinese Army crossing the Taiwan Strait and taking over the self-governed island's cities, warns that such an invasion will test the limits of their military and social readiness, and that they need to prepare. China's military preparedness to invade the island is inversely proportional to the Taiwanese population's readiness to face military escalation, Zero Day writer and showrunner Cheng Hsin Mei says. Cheng, who has spent five years working on the show with a crew of more than 500 people, says her intention is to provoke the Taiwanese into action. 'Initially, I thought that Taiwanese people did not really care about this war, but a year ago we released the trailer which was received very well and attracted a large viewership. That's when I realised it's not that Taiwanese people aren't afraid of war or not caring about this,' she tells The Independent from Copenhagen, where the show had its world premiere last week. 'It is actually maybe the fear deep inside of everyone's mind, but people just tend to not talk about it, hide it well and neglect it till it goes away from daily conversation.' China claims sovereignty over Taiwan, which it considers a breakaway province, and president Xi Jinping wants to 'reunify' the island with the mainland, by force if necessary. The Taiwanese people largely favour the status quo which gives them de facto independence. Last month, the Chinese military conducted extensive drills in the waters and airspace around Taiwan which war monitors said was Beijing's way of practising an invasion of the island and warning it against seeking formal independence. Taiwanese officials have warned that China could launch a surprise attack under the guise of military drills. American intelligence reports claim Xi has instructed the military to be ready to invade the island by 2027. The premier at the Copenhagen Democracy Summit was attended by former Taiwanese president Tsai Ing Wen. 'The release of our trailer was a crack in a glass through which people started venting out about their fear and feelings about what China's war could do to Taiwan. Normally, people tend to not face the reality of such possible scenarios,' Cheng says. 'We do feel this show has successfully started a conversation among the Taiwanese population. The trick to do it, and it is an old original hack, is to really provoke people's thoughts on a topic by exposing them to a show like this.' Cheng acknowledges the trailer 'attracted some criticism from people saying that we are trying to terrify the general public' but insists 'that is not true'. 'The threat of a war from China exists in people's minds,' she says. 'It's just that people don't want to talk about this.' Zero Day has faced criticism in Taiwan for 'scaremongering'. The opposition Kuomintang party has denounced the series as 'government propaganda' – not least because it reportedly received funding from the culture ministry – while other critics have panned it for making Taipei look inept in the face of China's actions. In the trailer, a TV presenter is reading out a news bulletin like it is business as usual: 'This morning, one of the PLA's Y-8 crossed the South China Sea. While passing through waters southeast of Taiwan, it suddenly vanished on radar screens. China is blocking Taiwan's waters under the pretext of search and rescue.' As she completes her sentence, one newsroom producer asks another: 'They said our army retreated and the PLA landed in Kinmen." Another checks his phone and says: "It is rumoured on social media that the president has fled by flight.' As the segment ends, the presenter turns around to the producer. 'Jiang, so there's going to be a real war?" she asks to drive home the point that, as experts warn, Taiwan will be enveloped in a fog of misinformation in the event of war. Zero Day is 10 episodes long and borrows heavily from Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Cheng claims to have shot the show with real warplanes and warships in real locations, including Taiwan's presidential office and residence, to keep it as real as possible. Cheng says she studied the Ukraine war theatre with the help of Puma Shen, an assistant professor at the National Taipei University's Graduate School of Criminology, who flew to the eastern European nation to understand the role of Russian misinformation in the conflict. 'Just bombs and artillery don't make a war. There's infowar, a lot of disinformation and whatever fog of fake news can be used to shape the society's thinking,' she says. The makers of Zero Day say they want to portray how a military conflict may potentially touch every sphere of polity and society, from newsrooms and supermarkets to social media influencers and elected officials. 'Because if war happens, it is not only going to be for our army. Our whole society will descend into chaos. So, they have to prepare for what the war will look like for every section of the country,' explains David Kao, lead of programme planning at TaiwanPlus. Cheng says she consulted current and former government officials, especially from the National Security Council of Taiwan, for inputs based on their war simulation scenarios. China has already cracked down on the Zero Day team. Beijing blacklisted two investors on the project last year and termed them separatists. 'They were blacklisted by China for supporting a pro-independence or pro-separation show. They are now persona non grata in Beijing's official books,' Kao tells The Independent. As for Cheng, she is taking all precautions to avoid China's wrath. 'I definitely personally would not dare to go to Hong Kong or China, or even travel on their airplanes,' she says.
The Independent
19-05-2025
- Entertainment
- The Independent
Creators of Taiwanese TV show imagining Chinese invasion warn island needs to prepare
Supermarkets in Taiwan are chaotically emptied as tampon stocks run low. Tanks rumble down city streets as clueless citizens look out of bus windows. Shipping and semiconductor stocks are plunging. 'The drastic move from the Chinese army has led to a complete halt in international shipping in the Taiwan Strait,' TV news presenters declare. A social media influencer munching on chocolate ice cream asks her followers to support a peace agreement. 'You think we could win? We know we can't,' she says. 'That's why we are so afraid.' A new drama series that imagines the Chinese Army crossing the Taiwan Strait and taking over the self-governed island's cities, warns that such an invasion will test the limits of their military and social readiness, and that they need to prepare. China's military preparedness to invade the island is inversely proportional to the Taiwanese population's readiness to face military escalation, Zero Day writer and showrunner Cheng Hsin Mei says. Cheng, who has spent five years working on the show with a crew of more than 500 people, says her intention is to provoke the Taiwanese into action. 'Initially, I thought that Taiwanese people did not really care about this war, but a year ago we released the trailer which was received very well and attracted a large viewership. That's when I realised it's not that Taiwanese people aren't afraid of war or not caring about this,' she tells The Independent from Copenhagen, where the show had its world premiere last week. 'It is actually maybe the fear deep inside of everyone's mind, but people just tend to not talk about it, hide it well and neglect it till it goes away from daily conversation.' China claims sovereignty over Taiwan, which it considers a breakaway province, and president Xi Jinping wants to 'reunify' the island with the mainland, by force if necessary. The Taiwanese people largely favour the status quo which gives them de facto independence. Last month, the Chinese military conducted extensive drills in the waters and airspace around Taiwan which war monitors said was Beijing 's way of practising an invasion of the island and warning it against seeking formal independence. Taiwanese officials have warned that China could launch a surprise attack under the guise of military drills. American intelligence reports claim Xi has instructed the military to be ready to invade the island by 2027. The premier at the Copenhagen Democracy Summit was attended by former Taiwanese president Tsai Ing Wen. 'The release of our trailer was a crack in a glass through which people started venting out about their fear and feelings about what China's war could do to Taiwan. Normally, people tend to not face the reality of such possible scenarios,' Cheng says. 'We do feel this show has successfully started a conversation among the Taiwanese population. The trick to do it, and it is an old original hack, is to really provoke people's thoughts on a topic by exposing them to a show like this.' Cheng acknowledges the trailer 'attracted some criticism from people saying that we are trying to terrify the general public' but insists 'that is not true'. 'The threat of a war from China exists in people's minds,' she says. 'It's just that people don't want to talk about this.' Zero Day has faced criticism in Taiwan for 'scaremongering'. The opposition Kuomintang party has denounced the series as 'government propaganda' – not least because it reportedly received funding from the culture ministry – while other critics have panned it for making Taipei look inept in the face of China's actions. In the trailer, a TV presenter is reading out a news bulletin like it is business as usual: 'This morning, one of the PLA's Y-8 crossed the South China Sea. While passing through waters southeast of Taiwan, it suddenly vanished on radar screens. China is blocking Taiwan's waters under the pretext of search and rescue.' As she completes her sentence, one newsroom producer asks another: 'They said our army retreated and the PLA landed in Kinmen." Another checks his phone and says: "It is rumoured on social media that the president has fled by flight.' As the segment ends, the presenter turns around to the producer. 'Jiang, so there's going to be a real war?" she asks to drive home the point that, as experts warn, Taiwan will be enveloped in a fog of misinformation in the event of war. Zero Day is 10 episodes long and borrows heavily from Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Cheng claims to have shot the show with real warplanes and warships in real locations, including Taiwan's presidential office and residence, to keep it as real as possible. Cheng says she studied the Ukraine war theatre with the help of Puma Shen, an assistant professor at the National Taipei University's Graduate School of Criminology, who flew to the eastern European nation to understand the role of Russian misinformation in the conflict. 'Just bombs and artillery don't make a war. There's infowar, a lot of disinformation and whatever fog of fake news can be used to shape the society's thinking,' she says. The makers of Zero Day say they want to portray how a military conflict may potentially touch every sphere of polity and society, from newsrooms and supermarkets to social media influencers and elected officials. 'Because if war happens, it is not only going to be for our army. Our whole society will descend into chaos. So, they have to prepare for what the war will look like for every section of the country,' explains David Kao, lead of programme planning at TaiwanPlus. Cheng says she consulted current and former government officials, especially from the National Security Council of Taiwan, for inputs based on their war simulation scenarios. China has already cracked down on the Zero Day team. Beijing blacklisted two investors on the project last year and termed them separatists. 'They were blacklisted by China for supporting a pro-independence or pro-separation show. They are now persona non grata in Beijing's official books,' Kao tells The Independent. As for Cheng, she is taking all precautions to avoid China's wrath. 'I definitely personally would not dare to go to Hong Kong or China, or even travel on their airplanes,' she says.
Hindustan Times
16-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Hindustan Times
Is ‘Zero Day' a Preview of Taiwan's Future?
A scene from the forthcoming TV show 'Zero Day' depicting a Chinese amphibious landing on The trouble begins on election day, with a bombing that interrupts voting, calls into question the legitimacy of the results, and inflames societal rifts. Concurrently, a People's Liberation Army Y-8 aircraft goes down in the Taiwan Strait, and Beijing uses search-and-rescue operations as the pretext for a blockade. China also makes a move on an outlying island. War appears imminent. How will Taiwan's people respond? That question is a core theme of 'Zero Day,' a forthcoming 10-part TV drama depicting a Chinese invasion of Taiwan. The first episode, described above, premiered this week at Copenhagen's Democracy Summit. The show's trailer suggests that, as the countdown to war begins, characters will contend with supply shortages, telecommunications breakdowns, the prison release of thugs who act as Beijing's on-the-ground enforcers, and other disquietingly plausible scenarios. (It shouldn't be confused with the Netflix miniseries of the same name starring Robert De Niro as a former U.S. president.) 'Zero Day' showrunner Hsin-Mei Cheng says she has observed that Taiwanese people are sometimes reluctant to dwell on the threat of war, but 'when we released our trailer last year, I found out the fear is in everyone's bottom of heart.' The show is 'a conversation-starter, and it's something that should be talked about more,' says Janet Hsieh, the actress who plays Taiwan's president-elect. In real life, China has quietly and steadily increased its threats against Taiwan. Recent Chinese military drills have practiced blockades, and China has also stepped up patrols around Taiwan's outlying islands. Adm. Samuel Paparo, head of U.S. Indo-Pacific Command, has warned American lawmakers these aggressive moves are 'not exercises' but 'rehearsals' for a forced reunification. The Taiwanese should be rehearsing, too. 'Defending Taiwan shouldn't just be the responsibility of the military, and everyone can have a role to protect each other and defend the country,' says Lin Fei-Fan, deputy secretary-general of Taiwan's National Security Council. Taiwan hopes preparedness may also function as a form of deterrence. Last summer, President Lai Ching-te established a Whole of Society Defense Resilience Committee, composed of representatives from government, civil society and academia. It held its first live drills in March, with volunteers, firefighters and medical personnel practicing the response to a natural disaster and an explosion at a strategically important port. Under a separate government initiative, 11 cities are holding drills this spring and summer that incorporate civil society. Some will coincide with Taiwan's Han Kuang military exercises. Taiwanese civil society is also stepping up to help the public prepare. The businessman Robert Tsao helped fund the production of 'Zero Day,' and he's also a financial backer of Kuma Academy, a nonprofit that seeks 'to prepare a prewar mentality for civilians' and 'cultivate self-defense capability and will to defend Taiwan.' Last fall China imposed sanctions on Mr. Tsao, Kuma Academy and one of its co-founders, Taiwanese lawmaker Puma Shen. Beijing also added Messrs. Tsao and Shen to its list of ' 'Taiwan independence' diehards' and threatened that they will be 'held accountable for life.' Kuma Academy didn't respond to my interview request, but it's easy to understand why China would despise initiatives like this. 'If society finds a way to carry on, it affords the government and the military the space to do their difficult job,' says Enoch Wu, founder and director of Forward Alliance, a nongovernmental organization that offers civilian training for how to save lives in a range of disasters. Taiwan's civil society is experiencing something similar to what happened in Ukraine in the decade before Russia's 2023 invasion. During the 2013-14 Revolution of Dignity, Ukrainians protested the president's decision to back out of a political association and free trade agreement with Europe in favor of closer ties with Russia. Taiwan's Sunflower Movement erupted almost in tandem, as protesters opposed a 2014 trade pact that would have deepened economic ties with China. Political and civic leaders emerged out of both movements, including many now focused on whole-of-society readiness. Mr. Wu says Taiwan is 'a disaster-prone country.' Civilian volunteers have experience responding to earthquakes, typhoons and other emergencies. His organization offers courses on first aid, search and rescue, using drones for emergency response, and dealing with unexploded ordnance, among other skills. As of last week, Forward Alliance had trained more than 24,000 volunteers in person and more than 457,000 online. That includes 128 employees from the Taiwanese company Awoo Intelligence, whose CEO, Mike Lin, describes himself as part of 'the Sunflower generation.' His realization: 'If we don't think carefully, if we don't do something more for this country, we will not retain our democracy and our freedom.' Watching 'Zero Day' may unsettle Taiwanese viewers enough to draw the same conclusion—and to act on it. Ms. Melchior is a London-based member of the Journal's editorial board. Get 360° coverage—from daily headlines to 100 year archives.
Kuwait Times
15-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Kuwait Times
Taiwanese war drama 'wake-up call' to Chinese invasion threat
A Chinese military blockade of Taiwan ignites panic across the self-ruled island as banks shut down, families flee, fake news spreads and Taiwanese troops brace for attack. The on-screen chaos is the basis of a new Taiwanese television series called "Zero Day", which creators hope will "awaken" people to the real-life threat of a Chinese invasion of Taiwan. Beijing has long vowed to annex Taiwan, by force if necessary. But rather than dramatize the cross-strait tensions, Taiwan's film and television industry has shied away from the topic for fear of losing access to the world's biggest Chinese language market. Lo Ging-zim, one of 10 directors involved in "Zero Day", said the war in Ukraine, resurgence of the China-friendly Kuomintang party in Taiwan and China's growing efforts to influence the island meant it could no longer be ignored. "Media around the world were talking about the next battlefield could be the Taiwan Strait," Lo told AFP, recalling 2022 when the idea for "Zero Day" emerged. "It started from a group of people all worried and anxious about the same thing, deciding to gather and take action." "Zero Day", which refers to the first day Chinese troops land in Taiwan, features 10 standalone episodes and is expected to premiere this year. The trailer shows chaos erupting across Taiwan as Chinese forces surround the island on the pretext of searching for crew members of a military plane that disappeared over nearby waters. Chinese disinformation floods Taiwan's internet, cash machines stop working, stock markets crash and families dragging suitcases seek to escape. The actor playing Taiwan's president urges people "to unite" in a televised address, warning "without freedom, Taiwan is not Taiwan". 'Looming threat of war' Real-world analysts have warned a Chinese blockade of Taiwan could precede an invasion, and China's military has practised cutting off the island during drills. Taiwan would be outgunned in any conflict with China and would need the United States and other countries to come to its defense. "Zero Day" producer Cheng Hsin-mei, who wrote one of the episodes of the series, said she wanted to "awaken Taiwanese people to the looming threat of war". She also hoped to inform the international community that Taiwan was not part of China. "We must tell the world we are not the same political system -- we are a free and democratic place and we elect our own president," Cheng said. "So when the regime launches an independent act of aggression, it is not a civil war, it is an invasion." The "Zero Day" cast includes actors from Hong Kong, Japan and Taiwan. Cheng said 70 percent of those approached for the series declined to take part, worried they would be blocked from productions hoping to enter China. Taiwanese actor Kaiser Chuang plays a businessman in financial difficulty who unwittingly receives help from Chinese collaborators. Chuang believes his involvement in "Zero Day" has already cost him one role, but he firmly insists the series "needed to be made". "A life of peace, security and freedom doesn't come through fear and submission," said Chuang, describing "Zero Day" as a "wake-up call". "It only comes from constant vigilance, making ourselves stronger, identity with our country and land, and unity among people living here." 'Not political propaganda' To make "Zero Day" more realistic, creators consulted military and political experts and shot key scenes on site, including a Taiwanese naval vessel and the Presidential Office in Taipei. Lawmaker Lin Chien-chi from the Beijing-friendly main opposition Kuomintang party criticized the series for creating "an atmosphere of panic" and blurring "reality and fiction excessively". "It inevitably leads to speculation about whether the filming perspective and thinking behind this series are related to the ruling party's political agenda," Lin told AFP, referring to the Democratic Progressive Party. While the production received NT$230 million (US$7.6 million) in funding from the government and private sector, the director Lo insisted it was not propaganda. "We are not making a political propaganda film, nor is it some kind of informational or civil defense educational video -- it's none of those," Lo said. "It is a drama. It should attract the audience through human nature, human emotions and human vulnerability." Cheng, the producer, said there had been strong international interest in the series and the team was now in talks with several online streaming platforms and television networks around the world. "It's also a way to prove that even without access to the Chinese market, Taiwanese drama can still break into other regions," she said. - AFP
