Amid heated criticism from Chinese Premier Li Peng over Japan's support of the U.S. in a hypothetical China-Taiwan conflict, the Liberal Democratic Party said August 22 that it will not specifically define the "areas surrounding Japan" phrase of the Japan-U.S. defense cooperation pact, but that Japan respects Beijing's one-China policy.
Taku Yamasaki, the LDP's policy chief, wrote an opaque, eight-point memo to that effect and presented it to the ruling party allies as a draft for a joint statement on the issue. The phrase refers to areas in which Japanese support would be required for U.S. military forces in the event of an emergency.
The policy chiefs are concerned about China's anger over recent remarks made by Chief Cabinet Secretary Seiroku Kajiyama that the areas include the Taiwan Strait. Yamasaki's paper also said that Japan's position in revising the bilateral defense guidelines is to respect a 1972 Japan-China joint statement that says Taiwan's problems are the internal affairs of China.