海角大神

鈥淵ou鈥檙e evil.鈥澛犫�淣o, 测辞耻鈥檙别 evil."

This, at its crudest, is how the most聽recent war of words between China and Japan is being played out.

The battleground, somewhat surprisingly, is Britain and the op-ed聽section of the conservative broadsheet, the Daily Telegraph.

In an ill-tempered exchange between the Chinese and Japanese聽ambassadors to London, both invoked another British institution 鈥撀燞arry Potter 鈥� to embellish attacks on the other country鈥檚聽contribution to tensions in the Asia-Pacific, not least over ownership聽of a small cluster of islands in the East China Sea.

For China鈥檚 envoy, Lui Xiaoming, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe鈥檚聽year-end visit to Yasukuni Shrine 鈥� where Japan鈥檚 war dead are honored聽鈥� was evidence that dark forces were at play at the heart of the聽administration in Tokyo.

鈥淚n the Harry Potter story, the dark wizard Voldemort dies hard聽because the seven horcruxes, which contain parts of his soul, have聽been destroyed,鈥� he wrote. 聽鈥淚f militarism is like the haunting聽Voldemort of Japan, the Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo is a kind of horcrux,聽representing the darkest parts of that nation鈥檚 soul.鈥�

Mr. Liu went on to accuse Abe of putting Japan back on the path of聽prewar-style militarism, citing his plans to raise military spending,聽his eagerness to reform the postwar pacifist Constitution, and his聽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聽of the Daily Telegraph. "East Asia is now at a crossroads," Japan鈥檚聽envoy to London, Keiichi Hayashi, wrote. "There are two paths open to聽China. One is to seek dialogue, and abide by the rule of law. The聽other is to play the role of Voldemort in the region by letting loose聽the evil of an arms race and escalation of tensions, although Japan聽will not escalate the situation from its side.鈥�

The vituperative commentaries put聽growing tension between China and Japan on full display. Over the past year, Japan decried China's unilateral declaration of an air defense identification zone while China bristled at Japan's new military plans.聽

While it's not normal for diplomats to engage in Harry Potter references, the choice of metaphor shouldn鈥檛 come as a surprise.

The Harry Potter genre is hugely popular in China, where demand聽reportedly sparked a lucrative market in bootleg versions. In 2007,聽movie executives rewarded Potter-mad Japan for its ability to generate聽sales by choosing Tokyo for the world premiere of "Harry Potter and the聽Order of the Phoenix."

For the region鈥檚 sake, one can only hope that representatives of the聽countries鈥� diplomatic corps rediscover their sense of Muggle propriety,聽so that their next exchange will be more temperate.

After all, the author of the Harry Potter books, J.K. Rowling, once聽described Voldemort as a 鈥渞aging psychopath, devoid of the normal聽human responses to other people鈥檚 suffering." As other commentators have聽pointed out, for two men schooled in the art of diplomacy to invoke聽such dark imagery about a neighbor 鈥� and an important trading聽partner, to boot 鈥� is unseemly at best.

The Liu-Hayashi bout makes it hard to imagine that 2014 will bring聽China and Japan any closer. A聽summit between their leaders is a similarly distant prospect: as聽things stand, a score-settling game of Quidditch would be less聽fanciful.