Repeating the call he first made at a DPP TV debate Friday, Yu said at a campaign rally for Shih Shih-ming in Keelung the party must revoke what is known as the “Independence” clause from its charter when its special national congress takes place on June 30.

Shih, the DPP nominee, is running for mayor of Keelung. The election will take place on May 6.

The clause, added in a form of resolution in 1999, declares Taiwan is an independent, sovereign state, whose future has to be decided by a plebiscite.

Taiwan does not belong to the People’s Republic of China, the resolution goes on, while Beijing’s “one country, two systems” and “one-China” principles “are not applicable in Taiwan.”

On the other hand, Taiwan should give up its “one China” claim, but dialogue must be resumed between Taipei and Beijing to set up a mechanism for peace to achieve a long-lasting stability and peace across the Taiwan Strait.

“When the resolution was adopted,” Yu said, “only 30 percent of the people identified themselves with Taiwan. Now more than 62 percent of the people do so.”

Time has come to rescind the obsolete clause in the DPP charter, Yu pointed out.

DPP lawmaker Wang Hsing-nan said he and many other party leaders support the abrogation of the resolution. “Our question,” he added, “is whether it should be replaced by a republic of Taiwan resolution.”

Another DPP legislator, Li Chun-yi, called for caution. “If independence is written into the charter,” he said, “there will be lots of trouble.”

That is why Frank Hsieh, former premier seeking the DPP nomination for 2008, said again he preferred to revise the Constitution of 1947.

Hsieh said at Friday’s debate that an amendment to the Constitution would be a better option than the abolition of the clause in question.

“When I raised that question on Friday,” Hsieh said, “I was opposed by all.” Premier Su Tseng-chang and Vice President Annette Lu also took part in the debate.

The Constitution is one for “one China,” with Taiwan not mentioned about, Hsieh continued. “We should change that,” he pointed out.

As a matter of fact, it would be easier for the DPP to strike out the clause than to have the Constitution amended.

An amendment, according to the Constitution as amended in 2005, has to be approved by a three-fourths majority vote at the Legislative Yuan, where the opposition alliance now controls a paper-thin majority of one.

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