China at war of words with Japan over Voldemort comment

China has urged Japan to get rid of the "demon" of militarism to regain trust from the international community in response to the earlier "Voldemort" comment of Japanese envoy.

Japanese envoy to the United Kingdom Keiichi Hayashi had said that China risks playing the role of Voldemort, a fictional Harry Potter series villain, 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.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying criticized the remarks as "ignorant, unreasonable and arrogant," the China Daily reports.

She further added that Japanese aggression has caused 35 million deaths and casualties among Chinese people.

Japan and China have long been on war of words over disputed maritime waters, but Hayashi's comment came as a response to an earlier statement by Chinese envoy to UK, who criticized Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's visit to the Yasukuni Shrine.