I believe this long sentence spells it out perfectly:
“When, in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume, among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the laws of nature and of nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.”
It seems to me an actual declaration of independence followed by a successful admission to the UN (which is the “among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station” clause) should be the formal recognition of that nation as a nation.
It’s great to intellectualize this discussion but the Chinese and Russian dictators are evil and they plan to take as much as they can and they don’t care how many people they kill or starve as they do it. This is the reality we are living in and if we don’t get ready to start fighting them and stopping them things are going to get much much worse for us.