provision had already been breached by China's imminent threat and missile buildup. Nevertheless, this move drew sharp rebuke from the United States, with the State Department insisting that the Taiwanese government clarify that the National Unification Council has not been abolished. However, in a TV interview days later, Chen stated that 'ceasing to function' is the same as having been 'abolished'. In the week prior, he told U.S. Congressman Rob Simmons (R-CT) that the Council and Guidelines were "absurd products of an absurd era." Chen revealed he planned to draft a new constitution, which many conjectured would be pro-separatist, before he stepped down in 2008. The Four Noes and One Without policy was officially replaced by Four Wants and One Without policy in 2007, which is essentially the opposite of the original Four Noes and One Without policy. When Tsai Ing-wen became president in 2016, she announced what has been called a New Four Noes policy for her administration, namely no changes in its pledges, no changes in its goodwill, no bowing to pressure and no reversion to the old path of confrontation. Criticism Koo Kwang-ming and other pro-independence leaders openly criticized that Chen, as president, is "not constitutionally authorized" and has "no legal power" to confine Taiwanese political future and freedom with the pledge. In addition, some of Chen's supporters such as Vice-president Annette Lu have suggested that the pledge may have loopholes such as the definition of military force. Furthermore, while the pledge stated that Chen would not support a referendum, some have suggested that it does not exclude the possibility of a referendum occurring by citizen initiative. The possibility of loopholes has occasionally led to considerable unease in Beijing and in Washington, D.C. Under strong objection from pro-independence leaders and his supporters, who threatened to walk out the inauguration ceremony immediately once the pledge was recited, Chen did not explicitly repeat this pledge in his 2004 inauguration speech after his re-election though he alluded to the pledge by stating that the assurances he had given in the 2000 inaugural address remained in effect, and he has stated many times that the pledge remains in effect. See also Three Noes One Country on Each Side Politics of the Republic of China Taiwan–United States relations Special non-state-to-state relations References Politics of Taiwan Cross-Strait relations 2000 in Taiwan