BEIJING – China’s top leaders officially agreed last year to prevent a military clash with Japan and any interference from the United States regarding the bitter sovereignty dispute over the Senkaku Islands in the East China Sea, sources close to them said Saturday.
This basic principle, endorsed late last year by the Communist Party’s Politburo Standing Committee, the apex of China’s power structure, stands despite Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s visit to war-related Yasukuni Shrine on Dec. 26, which further strained tensions with Beijing, according to the sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
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