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.

本周末，在台北总统府前的林荫大道上，台湾最可怕的噩梦在摄制组面前上演。一群演员和群演描绘了中国入侵可能带来的混乱局面：抗议活动演变成暴力和流血事件。

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.

这个正在拍摄的场景来自新台剧《零日攻击》，该剧描述了中国试图占领这个民主岛屿的情景。北京长期以来一直宣称台湾是其领土，并敦促台湾和平接受中国的主权。中国领导人习近平曾表示，不排除使用武统的可能性。

“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.

《零日攻击》要到明年才会播出，但在预告片发布后，它在台湾引发了激烈的争论。该剧的支持者表示，它可能会鼓励人们就中国构成的威胁展开亟需的对话。批评人士则谴责该剧制造恐慌。

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.

该剧的制片人郑心媚表示，她想让台湾人摆脱对战争可能性的麻痹大意和沉默，她认为这种情绪普遍存在。

“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.”

“大家真的在面对战争，你怎么去面对可能的战争，这件事情其实都没有人谈的，”同时也是该剧主要编剧的郑心媚在接受采访时说。“我想要去谈，因为我觉得是每个台湾人心里面最大的一个恐惧。”

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.

10集的电视剧《零日攻击》想象中国如何封锁台湾，然后试图占领这个岛屿，许多专家认为这种可能性越来越大。

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.

该剧讲述了一位台湾电视节目主持人、一个网络名人、一位（虚构的）总统和候任总统，以及其他角色面对中国为期一周行动的故事。封锁导致岛上物资短缺、抢劫和金融崩溃。外国人撤离。最后，随着中国军队登陆，战斗接踵而至。角色们纠结是逃是留，是合作还是反抗。从该剧长达17分钟的预告片来看，基调十分阴郁，预告片在拍摄结束前就已在网上放出。

“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.”

“现实中没有任何事情是非黑即白的，”在剧中饰演候任总统的谢怡芬说。“这凸显了局势、家庭以及正在发生的许多政治事件的复杂性。”

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.

尽管关于台湾遭受入侵的风险已经有了广泛的政策研究，但到目前为止，还没有一部电影或电视剧面向更广泛的公众探讨这些问题，显然是因为这个话题的政治争议性。

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.

郑心媚说，一些台湾演员因为担心被大陆列入黑名单或失去赞助商而拒绝出演剧中的角色。一些建筑物或场地的所有者取消了提供拍摄场地的协议，显然是担心引起争议。

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.

批评者（大多来自台湾反对党）称，《零日攻击》等同于为执政的民进党做宣传，民进党坚决反对北京对台湾的主权要求。反对党国民党的政治人士主张加强与北京的关系，他们指出，台湾文化部和一个与政府有关的基金投资了这部影片，而且影片的场景是在台湾军事基地和总统府内拍摄的。

“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.”

“完全用国家的权（力）替民进党来宣传，然后你去打这个选举的竞选广告，等于是选举的竞选，”国民党今年大选的副总统候选人赵少康告诉记者。

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.

该剧共有10位导演，每人导演一集。其中一位导演罗景壬表示，台湾的影视作品，包括喜剧和恐怖片，获得一些政府资助是很正常的现象。他说，政府并没有试图影响该剧的发展方向。

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.

罗景壬说，在俄罗斯入侵乌克兰之后，他受到启发，加入了《零日攻击》项目。他表示，剧中人物要努力应对中国可能用来破坏台湾稳定的措施，比如在互联网上散布虚假信息。在预告片中，随着中国封锁的开始，社交媒体上出现了声称台湾总统已经出逃的谣言。

“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.”

“现实世界中，北京将对台湾发动政治、心理和法律战争，在台湾民众中制造分裂和混乱，”华盛顿战略与国际研究中心的布莱恩·哈特说，他最近发表了一份关于中国如何封锁台湾的新研究。“我认为这是该剧试图向观众强调的一个重要部分。这很重要，因为威慑和抵抗中国的攻击需要的不仅仅是军事能力。”

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.

最近在总统府前拍摄的场景戏剧性地展现了一种可能发生的情况。一群台湾抗议者呼吁与北京和平妥协时，亲中渗透者挑起分裂，引发斗殴，促使警方介入。

“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.”

“讲得太英雄好像就有点太梦幻了，反而有点跟现实不太符合，”这一集的导演吴季恩说。