Taiwan’s president William Lai discussed the meaning of “Nation”

President Lai delivered his first speech regarding the current vital issues at a Rotary International regional meeting in New Taipei City on June 22, 2025.  The first topic is “nation”.  Lai’s plan is to give a series of 10 speeches across Taiwan in one month.  For the past seventy years, China repeatedly claimed sovereignty over Taiwan.   Lai refuted Beijing's claims of holding sovereignty over Taiwan "since ancient times".   As a matter of fact, there is scant historical record of official interactions between the island and China before the late 17th century.  Taiwan itself has thousands of years of history and has been widely considered the origin of the Austronesian language family and the Austronesian peoples.   Since China spreaded the false information to the international communities and the people in Taiwan, Lai felt it is necessary to clarify the “Nation” issue one more time.   The president outlined that Taiwan has all the necessary features of a nation, including citizens, land, government and sovereignty.  He emphasized that Taiwan is a country and condemned China’s misinterpretation of UN Resolution 2758.  It is the responsibility of Taiwanese citizens to stand united to defend their national sovereignty, democracy, liberty, way of life and the future of the next generation, Lai said.  Regarding the resolution, Lai explained that under UN Resolution 2758, it only deals with the issue of UN representation and does not mention Taiwan.   The resolution was about restoring the rights of the People’s Republic of China as the representative of China in the UN by expelling the representatives of Chiang Kai-shek, he said.   As reported before, the US Department of State this year said that China has distorted the resolution and that it does not determine Taiwan’s sovereignty.   Also Legislative bodies around the world, including those of the US, Australia, the Netherlands, Canada, the UK and European countries, have all passed Taiwan-related resolutions, declaring that UN Resolution 2758 does not pertain to Taiwan’s sovereignty.