Page 3 Profile: Liu Xiaoming, China’s ambassador to the UK

Liu Xiaoming, China’s ambassador to the UK (PA)

Who said Harry Potter is fantasy?

Certainly not Liu Xiaoming. The Chinese ambassador invoked Voldemort, the dark lord of the wizarding world, in a scathing attack on Japan’s Prime Minister, Shinzo Abe, whom he accused of posing a “serious threat to global peace” by “rekindling” Japan’s militaristic spirit.

What happened?

Last week, Mr Abe paid homage at the Yasukuni Shrine in Chiyoda, Tokyo, which is seen as a symbol of historical revisionism. Most controversially, it memorialises war criminals, including 14 “Class A” Second World War criminals, who were added in 1978.

So what exactly did he say?

Writing in The Daily Telegraph, Mr Liu said: “In the Harry Potter story, the dark wizard Voldemort dies hard because the seven horcruxes, which contain parts of his soul, have been destroyed. 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.”

But why did he use a British newspaper as his platform?

Mr Liu said that the incident had far-reaching consequences: “Visits to the shrine by Japanese leaders cannot simply be an internal affair… [They raise] serious questions about attitudes in Japan and its record of militarism, aggression and colonial rule”.

Now what?

This latest development in a diplomatic stand-off between China and Japan over a group of uninhabited islands raises fears of a major Asian conflict.

Where does that leave Britain?

Mr Liu said China and Britain were “wartime allies” who “should join together both to uphold the UN Charter and to safeguard regional stability and world peace”. A Basilisk fang might help too...