SEOUL, South Korea — A young couple on bicycles looks on with alarm as armored vehicles clatter through the streets of Taiwan’s capital, Taipei. As formations of fighter jets thunder over the city, a live TV broadcast by Taiwan’s president is suddenly hacked by Chinese cyber operatives.

A vapid online influencer advises her viewers to surrender, while a psychotic gangster with connections to the Communist regime across the Taiwan Strait organizes a gang of thugs and commences operations in support of Beijing.

Finally, camouflaged Chinese troops on the island break cover to initiate the intricately planned takeover operation.

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The scenes — thankfully — are fiction. Though they could be ripped from tomorrow’s news bulletins, they are segments of a hyper-realistic new Taiwanese TV thriller, “Zero Day.” The upcoming “what-if” drama covers the invasion of the democratic island by China’s People’s Liberation Army.

It’s fictional but not implausible: Chinese President Xi Jinping has vowed to “reunite” the island with the — peacefully or otherwise— and reportedly has ordered his forces to be prepared for a military operation if necessary by 2027.

Boasting a cast of Taiwanese, Japanese and expatriate Hong Kong actors, high production values and portentous theme music, “Zero Day’s” global ambitions are obvious in its English-language subtitles. The 10-part series, with each episode made by a different director, is expected to run on a yet-to-be-named streaming service early next year.

Posted this week, the series’ 17-minute trailer, free to watch on YouTube with already nearly a million views, covers ominous events from just the first episode.

Set in the near future, the drama begins in the political vacuum between a Taiwanese presidential election and the new president’s inauguration. In this politically sensitive time, a Chinese military aircraft crashes off Taiwan.

A surviving crewman, picked up by a warship, makes clear the aerial disaster was caused by an internal explosion, but Beijing uses the incident as the justification for an invasion.

The countdown to the cross-Strait assault in the trailer incorporates a number of scenarios anticipated by analysts and war gamers about a possible China-Taiwan showdown.

China’s navy immediately initiates a blockade. As tensions rise, the stocks of Taiwan’s world-class computer chipmakers plummet and there is a run on local banks. Some citizens flee; others decide to defend their country and join the military, amid growing evidence of social confusion and chaos.

Strong emotions

The trailer has already sparked strong emotions in Taiwan.

“Goosebumps — every countdown to the enemy’s actions is happening,” wrote YouTuber nylingi1250. “It’s hard to imagine how to face it when that day comes.”

“We won’t give in,” added another commenter on the video. “I am willing to stand in front of my country and my mother, Taiwan.”

One expatriate Taiwanese said he was pleased that a wider international audience will potentially be exposed to the perils the island faces because of the series.

“It’s a good start, to try to show the risk, and to show how important the situation in Taiwan is,” said Yang Chien-hao, a Seoul-based reporter. “With this cultural content, people will start to think.” 

One aim of the series, a financial backer told a press conference, is to shift Taiwanese public perceptions.

“Taiwanese people’s preparation and understanding is crucial when facing a cross-Strait crisis,” said Robert Tsao, founder of contract chipmaker United Microelectronics Corp, the news website Focus Taiwan reported. “Drama can have an impact on how people perceive, and we hope that this drama sends some kind of warning, because Taiwan is now under cultural attack.”

“Zero Day” represents the first investment by the chipmaker in film, according to Focus Taiwan.

Mr. Tsao has previously funded Taipei’s Kuma Academy, which offers citizens courses in countering disinformation, crisis preparation, first aid and survival.

The makers of “Zero Day” received support from the Defense Ministry as well as financial backing from Taipei’s Ministry of Culture. The ministry oversees a $305 million fund designed to promote the island’s cultural content industry, including film and TV.

Distinct break

“Zero Day” also marks a distinct break from the typical fare offered by the island’s domestic cultural industry. Critics say Taiwan, despite its economic success, desperately needs to promote domestic artistic works as well — particularly those dealing with thorny issues.

Over the last two decades, many of the singers, actors, auteurs and producers from Taiwan, with a population of about 23.5 million, have tailored their offerings to attract the lucrative Chinese market and a potential audience of some 1.4 billion people. The Chinese mainland uses the same language as Taiwan, Mandarin, but wields a strong censorial hand about what content can be shown domestically.

Given the economic realities, questions have been raised about the loyalty of some local Taiwanese artists.

“Taiwanese actors, on China’s national day, post on their Weibo accounts that they congratulate China, but they don’t say a word on Taiwan’s national day,” said the reporter Mr. Yang, who closely covers South Korea’s cultural industry. “To make money, they have to show their loyalty to Chinese authorities, and this makes self-censorship serious.”

He noted that South Korean producers have turned highly sensitive political issues into movies, while their Taiwanese counterparts have been loath to do so, despite the similar democratic freedoms enjoyed by both states.

As such, he — along with many commenters on YouTube — applauded those who have risked severing potentially lucrative ties with the Beijing regime to participate in “Zero Hour.”

“It will be risky for their careers and they will be blacklisted. This movie certainly will not go onto streaming services in China,” Mr. Yang said. “I regard it as a good beginning and I hope to see more and more of these things being made in the future, to reflect Taiwan’s situation and history.”