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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On July 26th, a third of Taiwan will vote on recall referendums (大罷免) for 24 legislators throughout Taiwan.

Our guest is Nathan F. Batto, an associate research fellow at the Institute of Political Science, Academia Sinica. Taiwan watchers also know him as the writer of Frozen Garlic wordpress on Taiwanese elections.

We discuss how we got here: the KMT/TPP coalition in the legislature, the passionate activists who have been organizing the nation-wide movements; how the recall threshold was lowered in 2016 after the Sunflower Movement; the social cost of participating in recall bids, and how that affected the success rate of bids in cities versus in rural communities; And the impact of a perpetual election cycle. 

Facts & figures:

• This recall will affect 24 legislators, ie: more than a quarter of elected seats. (Taiwan’s legislative assembly is made of 113 seats. 79 are elected directly by constituents in districts. Another 24 are composed of party seats as decided by proportion of party votes.)
• All 24 legislators up for a recall on July 26th are from the Kuomingtang (Nationalist Party, KMT).
• To meet the recall threshold, number of votes in favor of removing a lawmaker must exceed the number of votes against; and surpass 25% of eligible voters in that district.
• By-elections will be held in the fall. If the DDP gains six seats in the legislature as a result, they will gain majority.

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Michael Caster (Head of Global China Programme) and I-Chen Liu (Asia Programme Officer) are researchers from the international non-profit organization ARTICLE 19, whose report “Cybersecurity with Chinese Characteristics” (2025) outlines PRC’s influence over cybersecurity norms in 3 Indo-Pacific countries: Indonesia, Pakistan, and Vietnam; and with a Taiwan alternative.

The Digital Silk Road is an umbrella concept that includes policies, priorities, tools, technologies, and tactics of a digital nature under the larger Belt and Road Initiative. Launched in 2015, it’s how PRC promotes its cybersecurity and digital governance norms and technical standards across the world.

It does this through public and private partnerships with Chinese tech companies that provide capacity-building initiatives: 5G cyber security test labs ​​in Malaysia, mobile payment in Thailand, data centers in Nepal, surveillance cameras in Phnom Penh and Kathmandu, submarine cables in Cambodia, and satellite systems for Thailand. While receiving such technology, recipient countries have also adopted PRC-style censorship and regulations into their legal framework. Examples include Vietnam’s 2018 cybersecurity law, which regulates aspects including content moderation and data localization. 

The PRC is now pushing for multilateral cooperation through institutions like the UN, ASEAN, and other state-led forums. It has established additional bodies like the Global Security Initiative, Global Development Initiative, and Global Civilization Initiative to further the standardization of PRC-style norms.

The researchers warn of the impact on democracy and freedom of speech this could have on the recipient country. “When China talks about multilateralism, they're doing it as a renouncing multi-stakeholderism approach; Denying civil society, the tech sector, academia, other independent actors. They're denying them a seat at the table”, says Caster.

The PRC-style of digital government becomes a toolkit for the authoritarian actor on how to use cybersecurity laws in the name of promoting safety or national security; but it’s actually introducing potentially humanitarian disaster laws that will impact the right to freedom of expression and the right to privacy.

Notable is the upcoming United Nations Cybercrime Convention in Vietnam, dubbed The Hanoi Convention, which has been rescheduled from July to October, 2025. 

The Cybersecurity with Chinese Characteristics report ends with Taiwan’s democratic model of defending cybersecurity, which ensures the participation of civil society, as an alternative model to curb digital authoritarianism.

This report follows “The Digital Silk Road: China and the Rise of Digital Repression in the Indo-Pacific” (2024) which includes case studies from Cambodia, Malaysia, Nepal, and Thailand.

To access this report: https://www.article19.org/resources/china-taiwan-cybersecurity/

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Mimi Yu (尤虹文) is the author of three memoirs, including the 2019 title “The Unforgetting Body” in which she details her recovery from depression.

Yu is a cellist who has worked with musicians like Itzhak Perlman, Yo-Yo Ma, Paul Katz, and Robert Levin. She played cello while at The Juilliard School and has a B.A. in economics from Harvard University. Born in Kaohsiung, Taiwan, Mimi Yu went to the U.S. at age 15 to study at the Cleveland Institute of Music. 

In her mid-twenties, Yu was impacted by severe depression and had to stop performing.

We discuss her path to healing; finding Buddhism, Taosim, the importance of eating well and listening to your body, trailing spouses. She’s now a public speaker, a music healer, and a coach on mental wellness.

“There’s a beauty in every person we meet, and when they come to me, there must be a reason, and I am just here to support and to love, and sometimes that love awakens the deep love they have for themselves inside. And when that happens, then healing happens.”

“The Unforgetting Body” 因為身體記得：告別憂鬱症的療癒之路 (尤虹文 / 天下文化 / 2019)  ：https://bookzone.cwgv.com.tw/book/BBP445

Her podcast at Global View Magazine (in Mandarin)【尤虹文的療癒時光】：https://www.facebook.com/share/p/16bG3gZ12o/

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Jimmy Lai, the 77-year-old media tycoon of British citizenship, has been detained for over five years, mostly in isolation. He is one of over 1,500 political prisoners in Hong Kong.

Today's interview contains a clip of a conversation between Jimmy Lai and Natan Sharansky from November 20, 2020, one month before Lai’s arrest. Sharansky is a former Soviet dissident who spent nine years imprisoned as a refusenik during the 1970s and 1980s.

“... What you said about physical survival is not important. Spiritual survival is very important. Never back down. The peak of your life is when you were in prison. I totally understand, and that is very important; because I take up the responsibility of imagining myself influencing so many people as an example. If I don’t back down then they won’t back down. So that is a responsibility that is also uplifting spirit for me. And I really thank you so much for inspiring me on this.” - Jimmy Lai in November, 2020. (Transcript)

Mark L. Clifford is the author of “The Troublemaker: How Jimmy Lai Became a Billionaire, Hong Kong's Greatest Dissident, and China's Most Feared Critic” (Simon & Schuster, 2024). He first met Lai in 1993.

Jimmy Lai was born in Guangdong, China. At age 12, he cramped into a fishing boat and arrived in Hong Kong as an illegal immigrant. The year was 1961. Hong Kong was still a British colony. In two decades Lai became a leader in the city’s fashion and textiles industry, then became a newspaper publisher. He launched Next magazine in 1990 then Apple Daily newspaper in 1995, both quickly became Hong Kong’s top-selling publications.

In 2001, Next opened its Taiwan offices. In this interview, Clifford recounts the importance of the Taiwan operation. It was supposed to have been a stepping-stone to publishing in China, Clifford explains.

Jimmy Lai stands out as a business tycoon who is an outspoken advocate for pro-democracy causes.

In 1989 Lai sent aid to students protesting at Tiananmen Square in Beijing. In 2014 he joined protesters at the Umbrella Movement in Hong Kong, and again in 2019 as million-plus residents marched against China for what became the largest series of demonstrations in the history of Hong Kong. 

Hong Kong, a special administrative region of People's Republic of China since 1997, implemented its National Security Law on June 30, 2020. Months later, on December 31, 2020, Jimmy Lai was arrested.

Apple Daily printed its final edition in Hong Kong on June 24, 2021. Five additional editors were jailed.

Our guest today is Mark Clifford, author of the new biography on Jimmy Lai. Clifford spent 28 years in Hong Kong before leaving the city in 2020. Clifford had been a director of Next Digital - publisher of the newspaper Apple Daily, executive director of the Asia Business Council, editor-in-chief of the South China Morning Post, and publisher and editor-in-chief of The Standard.

Clifford left Hong Kong in 2020 and now serves as the founding president of the Committee for Freedom in Hong Kong (CFHK) Foundation, a U.S.-based NGO established in 2022 to fight for Hong Kong and its people in the wake of China’s national security crackdown.

Recent updates on the Jimmy Lai trial: 

• March 6, 2025: Lai wrapped up his testimony.
  
  
• March 10, 2025: Lai’s son, Sebastien, wrote to the U.S. President Trump in an op-ed in the New York Post, “President Trump, we need your help to get Hong Kong to release my dad, Jimmy Lai — before he dies in solitary confinement”. (Trump’s commitment was stated on the Hugh Hewitt Show in October 2024.
  
  
• March 11: Closing argument is set for August 14, 2025 (RTHK)
  
  
• April 1: A bipartisan bill was introduced in the U.S. U.S. lawmakers introduced a bipartisan bill to rename the street next to Hong Kong’s Washington D.C. office in Dupont Circle to “Jimmy Lai Way” (Chris Smith, R-NJ)
  
  
• April 10: Lai will be an honorary recipient of the Bradley Prize for being a “courageous advocate for democracy and freedom of the press.”

See “Support Jimmy Lai dot com” for regular updates:
https://supportjimmylai.com

More information from the Committee for Freedom in Hong Kong: https://thecfhk.org/

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British-Canadian-Taiwanese writer Jessica J. Lee (李潔珂) is the author of three books of nature writing, Dispersals (2024), Two Trees Make a Forest (2019), and Turning (2017), the children’s book A Garden Called Home (2024), and co-editor of the essay collection Dog Hearted (2023). She has a PhD in Environmental History and Aesthetics and is the founding editor of The Willowherb Review. She teaches creative writing at the University of King’s College in Canada. She lives in Berlin.

This episode was recorded live on April 11th, 2025 in Taipei, Taiwan. The evening was co-organized by the Czech Hub in Taiwan, and moderated by Korean-American writer, Esther Kim. 

About Czech Hub in Taiwan - Launched in 2023, this gathering space in Taipei hosts monthly forums on policy, security, and business. It’s curated by the European Values Center for Security Policy and the Czech-Taiwanese Business Chamber. Sign up for its newsletter, Indo-Pacific Currents:https://europeanvalues.cz/en/newsletters/

About the Moderator - Esther Kim is a writer living in Taiwan. She is the first and former Digital Communications Manager of the Asian American Writers’ Workshop, a major literary nonprofit in NYC. She joined the Workshop as a magazine editor. Before that, she worked on staff at book publishers with an international perspective and received her Masters degrees at SOAS, London and at Edinburgh. She writes a column for The Korea Times and is working on publishing a family heirloom into an art book.

About the Conversation - Two Trees Make a Forest is a memoir on Jessica’s journey searching for her family roots in Taiwan. The latest title, Dispersals, is a collection of fourteen essays on the interconnectedness of the lives of plants and the human world. This evening, Jessica and Esther spoke about soy, swimming, nature writing and its relations to politics and anthropology, and writing for the diaspora community.

Jessica is interested in investigating the gaps in the identity of plants and their cultural significance. While soy - a plant she writes about in Dispersals - is valued by her family as a source of food while growing up in Canada, she often heard anti-soy narratives outside of home.

Jessica discusses the significance of addressing political and societal issues in natural writings. 

“We're living in this moment of biodiversity crisis, climate change,” she says. “And these are things that disproportionately impact the people who have contributed to those problems the least… So it doesn't really make sense for nature writers who purport to be writing about those crises and the sort of fallout from them, to not also address the human cost, the cultural framings that get us to that place.”

Jessica cites Taiwanese writer Wu Ming-yi and American anthropologist Anna Tsing as writing influences. 

Ghost Island Media first interviewed Jessica J. Lee in August 2020 for the podcast Waste Not Why Not. Check out this episode here: https://ghostisland.media/zh/shows/waste-not-why-not/jessica-j-lee

Jessica J. Lee’s publication links:

Dispersals (2024) - https://www.jessicajleewrites.com/dispersals
Mandarin as《離散的植物》 - https://www.cite.com.tw/book?id=100902
Two Trees Make a Forest (2020) - https://www.jessicajleewrites.com/two-trees
Mandarin as《山與林的深處》 - https://www.cite.com.tw/book?id=91572

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Anders Fogh Rasmussen is former Prime Minister of Denmark (2001-2009) and Secretary General of NATO (2009-2014). He’s Chairman of the Alliance of Democracies Foundation.

We sat down with Rasmussen this week at Yushan Forum, the annual summit organized by Taiwan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Taiwan-Asia Exchange Foundation. This conversation was recorded on March 17, 2025.

Rasmussen is worried about a new world order “where might makes right… a world order with three power centers: one in Washington, one in Beijing, and one in Moscow. That's what concerns me the most, and I will devote the rest of my life to counter that world order.”

In Asia and in the Indo-Pacific, he’s looking to see more multilateral approaches on security and trade. “I would also like to see a bigger investment in your own defense,” he says, referring to Taiwan. “That's what we have concluded in Europe, and I think the same conclusion goes for Asia, that each individual country must demonstrate a clear commitment to its own security by increasing defense investment and by cooperating closer together.”

He warns of the consequence of a collective weakness if democracies don’t support each other. “If Putin gets success in Ukraine because of our weakness, it would send an extremely dangerous signal to autocrats in other parts of the world: Xi Jinping, Kim Jong Un…” 

He spoke of the need for a reform of the United Nations. “The United Nations reflect the world as it was in 1945 with the United States as really, a dominant power. But since then, other powers have risen, like Germany in Europe, like Japan in Asia, like Brazil in South America… In the current [UN] Security Council, Russia and China have so called veto, right? So they can block all decisions in the United Nations that go against their interest, and that makes the United Nations useless, because we cannot pass any resolution. So I think we need a reform of the United Nations, but as it requires the consent of both Russia and China, it's more or less impossible in the short term. So yes, long term, we should reform the United Nations. Short term, we have to deal with what we do have.”

In the last 5 minutes of the episode we play Rasmussen’s full speech at Yushan Forum. 

To see the full opening ceremony, see here. This includes speeches by Taiwan’s President Dr. Lai Ching-te, former Prime Minister of Denmark Anders Fogh Rasmussen, former Prime Minister of Slovenia Janex Janša, Member of the Japanese House of Presentatives in the Diet Keiji Furuya, Director of the American Institute in Taiwan Raymond Greene, as well as Chairman of the Taiwan-Asia Exchange Foundation, Dr. Michael Hsiao: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yZ2qq_dLmn4

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Mariia Makarovych is Head of the East Asian Office of the Liberal Democratic League of Ukraine. Today, we discuss the on-going peace negotiations, the role of civil society organizations the past three years, society preparedness prior to 2022, Russian propaganda since 2014, and today, the role of China. 

Makarovych is an economic and policy analyst with a background in CSO throughout Ukraine and in European think tanks. She had worked to strengthen democratic tools among communities in Donetsk and implemented projects on education, land management, and funding. She was an Information Defense Analyst at the European Values Center for Security Policy. Since 2022, she has shifted her focus to researching Ukrainian economic policy and Russia propaganda.

She moved to Taiwan from Ukraine in August 2023.

This conversation was recorded on March 10, 2025.

Makarovych reflects on the on-going peace agreements led by U.S. President Trump. She warns of the dangers of signing a mineral deal without security guarantees and emphasizes the risk of Russia regaining strength and attacking Ukraine again: a peace agreement without fair conditions could set a dangerous precedent for aggressive regimes worldwide.

Drawing from her own experience growing up in Eastern Ukraine and at the onset of the full-scale invasion in 2022, we discuss society's response to pressure, civil defense, and the differences between preparedness for natural disasters versus active hostilities.

Liberal Democratic League is a Ukrainian NGO established in 2014 by students in Kyiv as a response to the Revolution of Dignity (Maidan Revolution.)

It’s been three years since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. For our retrospectives on year one and two, please the following podcast interviews:

Alex Khomenko (Taiwan Stands with Ukraine): https://ghostisland.media/en/shows/taiwan-take/ukraine-war-two-years-taiwan-aid-alex-khomenko

Oleksandr Shyn (Ukrainian Voices): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=87mQDj9X8rs&list=PLOV_JV4K99T5UF76rRj9z5WUNztzIk0Fi&index=10&t=23s

Dmytro Burtsev (political scientist), in Mandarin: https://ghostisland.media/en/shows/5-star-nation/ukraine-dmytro-burtsev

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Jonas Parello-Plesner is Executive Director of the Alliance of Democracies Foundation. He’s the author of the book, “The Battle for Taiwan”.

“The Battle for Taiwan” (“Kampen om Taiwan”) was first published in Denmark in 2023 as the first book on Taiwan for the Danish audience. The English edition was published in April, 2024.

Alliance of Democracies works to strengthen democracies around the world and to encourage cooperation between the world’s democracies. It also organizes the annual Copenhagen Democracy Summit. It’s founded by former NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen. In 2021, the Foundation was sanctioned by China. 

This was recorded live on February 19th, 2025 at a book launch hosted by the European Values Center for Security Policy. Introduction by Marcin Jerzewski, Head of Taiwan Office of the European Values Center for Security Policy.

(Since then, U.S. President Trump has paused military aid to Ukraine; Taiwan’s semiconductor company TSMC has announced an additional U.S. investment of 100 billion U.S. dollars.)

“The Battle for Taiwan” on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Battle-Taiwan-Jonas-Parello-Plesner/dp/B0CZRYS4RZ

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Alejandro Mayoral Baños is the Executive Director of Access Now, an international NGO focusing on digital human rights.

Access Now is the organizer of RightsCon - world’s largest digital human rights summit. The 2025 edition is set to take place in Taipei from February 24 to 27, 2025, where more than 550 sessions are expected to be staged. 

Baños talks to Ghost Island Media about digital authoritarianism, data governance, and artificial intelligence. 

Prior to his role at Access Now, Baños has been a life-long leader in advocacy and research on  indigenous rights and digital development. He gives advice to CSO on navigating new challenges, finding new financial sustainability, and the importance of networking.

This interview was conducted on January 22, 2025. Impact of the U.S. President Trump’s executive orders on the freezing of foreign assistance was not discussed. 

Baños’s grew up in Mexico as a member of the Mixtec indigenous people and is now based in Canada. In 2015 he founded the Indigenous Friends Association to bridge the gap between indigenous communities and digital technologies. He has been a Ashoka Fellow for his work as a social entrepreneur. In 2020 he was named a Toronto Community Champion by CBC. 

On-line sessions for RightsCon are available for those who cannot come to Taiwan. Register: https://www.rightscon.org/registration/

Resources Baños mentioned in the interview:

Indigenous Data Sovereignty: CARE Principles for Indigenous Data Governance: https://www.gida-global.org/care#:~:text=CARE%20Principles%20for%20Indigenous%20Data%20Governance,-The%20current%20movement&text=Existing%20principles%20within%20the%20open,power%20differentials%20and%20historical%20contexts.

Approaches to create AI Models for the Indigenous -  Indigenous Protocol and Artificial Intelligence Working Group: https://www.indigenous-ai.net/

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