in the December elections, and after the elections Soong ended any talk of a merger and began an effort to improve relations with the DPP. The reconsideration of support is widely believed to be because the reforms would hurt small parties such as the PFP. Following the visit by Kuomintang leader Lien Chan to mainland China and a similar trip by PFP leader James Soong, the election has been unexpectedly turned into a referendum on pan-blue and pan-green plans for relations with China. During the week before the election, President Chen Shui-bian gave a television interview in which he argued that a vote against the constitutional amendments would play into the hands of the PRC and that the amendments marked a step toward legal Taiwan independence. However, these arguments have were widely criticized in Taiwan, since the Kuomintang, which is anti-Taiwan independence strongly supported the amendments, while the pro-independence Taiwan Solidarity Union strongly opposed them. Constitutional amendments The proposed amendments may be summarized as follows: Reducing the number of members in the Legislative Yuan from 225 to 113; Changing the term of office for Legislative Yuan members from 3 years to 4 years to synchronize the election cycle with the President of the Republic of China; Changing the electoral system for the Legislative Yuan to first-past-the-post system with single member constituency, along with a separate party-list top-up (Additional Member System); Abolishing the National Assembly in favour of referendums for the ratification of constitutional amendments and territorial changes (proposed by a three-fourths vote of the Legislative Yuan) in the future; and Changing the impeachment procedure for the president and vice-president so they are dealt with by the Grand Justices. Using referendums to ratify constitutional amendments has been portrayed by some as a step toward Taiwan independence. However, the requirement that such a referendum must first be approved by a three-fourths vote of the Legislative Yuan, and that at least 50% of the whole electorate had to vote for the change for the referendum to succeed considerably reduced the chance that these amendments would trigger a conflict with the People's Republic of China. Parties and campaign The 300 seats in the National Assembly were up for election. The follow parties fielded candidates on their party lists: Taiwan Solidarity Union (TSU): 50 candidates on its party list Taiwan Independence Party 22 Non-Partisan Solidarity Union 30 People First Party (PFP) 83 New Party 26