Tension between the Asian powerhouses grew in 2013. Now, Chinese and Japanese diplomats are comparing each other's country to the Harry Potter villain.
In an ill-tempered exchange between the Chinese and Japanese ambassadors to London, both invoked another British institution - Harry Potter - to embellish attacks on the other country's contribution to tensions in the Asia-Pacific, not least over ownership of a small cluster of islands in the East China Sea.
For China's envoy, Lui Xiaoming, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's year-end visit to Yasukuni Shrine - where Japan's war dead are honored - was evidence that dark forces were at play at the heart of the administration in Tokyo.
"In the Harry Potter story, the dark wizard Voldemort dies hard because the seven horcruxes, which contain parts of his soul, have been destroyed," he wrote. "If militarism is like the haunting Voldemort of Japan, the Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo is a kind of horcrux, representing the darkest parts of that nation's soul."
Mr. Liu went on to accuse Abe of putting Japan back on the path of prewar-style militarism, citing his plans to raise military spending, his eagerness to reform the postwar pacifist Constitution, and his apparent lack of remorse for his country's wartime conduct.
It took Japan just a few days to respond in kind, again in the pages of the Daily Telegraph. "East Asia is now at a crossroads," Japan's envoy to London, Keiichi Hayashi, wrote. "There are two paths open to China. One is to seek dialogue, and abide by the rule of law. The other is to play the role of Voldemort in the region by letting loose the evil of an arms race and escalation of tensions, although Japan will not escalate the situation from its side."
Source: NewsOnJapan
