Sylvanie Burton, President of the Commonwealth of Dominica, recently expressed her gratitude to President Xi Jinping for his advocacy on behalf of women’s rights.
Correspondence from the Chinese Embassy in Dominica placed Burton in Beijing on Saturday to attend the upcoming Global Leaders’ Meeting on Women. The meeting, co-hosted by China and UN Women, will be held in the city from October 13 to 14.
A Xinhua News Agency article said that Burton highlighted the occasion, commemorating the 30th anniversary of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, as offering a valuable occasion to assess the strides made in advancing women’s development worldwide.
In an interview with Xinhua, the president conveyed her anticipation for the event in China, emphasizing her eagerness to explore ways to further promote women’s causes globally. She also expressed interest in understanding China’s efforts to improve living standards for women and their families.
Burton reportedly underscored the profound impact of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, which was adopted during the 1995 UN Fourth World Conference on Women, noting that this landmark document has significantly influenced international perspectives, fostering a more positive outlook on women’s empowerment and equality.
“For us here in Dominica,” she stated, “after the Beijing Declaration and the Platform of Action, we saw that the government of Dominica ensured that in every budgetary allocation we had to show that we would be empowering women or would be creating some avenues for gender equality.”
In the article, she added that countries can evaluate their progress, identify areas needing improvement, and determine future steps. Burton stressed that empowering women extends beyond individual benefits—it uplifts families, children, and youth, making ongoing efforts in this realm vital.
Xinhua reports that Burton praised China for its tangible initiatives aimed at fostering women’s development. She noted that China allocates targeted funding to support grassroots and vulnerable women, helping them improve their living conditions through better housing and education. Highlighting China’s leadership as an example, she told reporters that the country demonstrates how women can be empowered both at community and international levels—through employment, representation, negotiation, and advocacy on behalf of their nations, communities, and families.
Burton reportedly observed that since establishing diplomatic ties in 2004, Chinese-supported projects have notably enhanced the quality of life for women in Dominica. She cited the first-ever cardiology surgery in the country, made possible through a Chinese-assisted cardiology unit, which benefited a woman.
“The Dominica-China Friendship Hospital allows women to give birth safely there instead of in remote districts, where a lack of facilities once led to tragic deaths,” wrote Xinhua.
It is reported that Burton also pointed to other collaborative efforts, such as the construction of the Dominica-China Friendship Bridge, new housing for indigenous women-led households, and improved roads connecting Roseau and Portsmouth. These projects have facilitated safer and easier travel, enabling women to access education and support their families more effectively.
She expressed admiration for China’s vision of building a community with a shared future for humanity and recognized the Global Governance Initiative as instrumental in advancing women’s progress.
Looking ahead, said the write-up, Burton hopes to learn from China’s advanced experiences during the upcoming meeting and to bring back practical strategies to further empower women and promote gender equality in Dominica.
She concluded with optimism, saying, “We hope that we will have a successful meeting.”
President Burton arriving in Beijing on Saturday morning:
Your Excellency Sylvanie Burton, President of the Commonwealth of Dominica, here is how China treats women. Dominica certainly does not want to learn these lessons from China. No thank you.
‘Cai Xia (Chinese: 蔡霞; pinyin: CĂ i Xiá, born October 1952)[1] is a Chinese dissident and scholar of political theory. She has taught high-ranking members and officials of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), including leading provincial and municipal administrators and cabinet-level ministers, and is a retired professor of the CCP Central Party School. She is an advocate for political liberalisation in China and has been critical of CCP General Secretary Xi Jinping. She was expelled from the CCP in August 2020 for criticising the CCP under Xi’s rule. Since 2019, she has resided in the United States in exile.’
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cai_Xia
You know, there’s absolutely no doubt in my mind that people like that woman woman could not make a living in any profession that requires any form of scholastic education!
When I was growing up as kid I experienced people looking down at the Carib Indians on the Reservation: treated as if they were less than human, complements of the former Spanish, French, and British Colonial scum of the earth people who dominated the Carib’s and black people, as my ancestors; my grandmother, brothers and sisters originated from the village Senaku! My great uncle’s and aunts are Valmond, and Alfred too. They my relatives are smart; I am however, ashamed of that stupid women parading as a Carib, making a fool of herself, a puppet repeating what she is programmed to say.
She is incapable thinking for herself. That woman has no idea of how the communist system works! I wonder if she knows that the government of China tells the women how many children they should birth?
Sylvanie is dumb!
World unites against China’s brutal campaign to erase Uyghur identity and faith https://www.malaysiasun.com/news/278616990/world-unites-against-china-brutal-campaign-to-erase-uyghur-identity-and-faith
Does the President of the Commonwealth of Dominica know how China imprisons and tortures women of the Uyghur tribe in Xinjiang? Has our President ever heard of or read about the Xinjiang internment camps where the Uyghur tribe are forced to deny their culture and language, forced by the China Communist party and Xi’s government into repression?
As an indigenous Kalinago Dominican she more than anyone should understand the damage of a people and their culture for political colonisation, reeducation and inductrination purposes.
Here is some education for you Madame President, please read and learn how China really treats women.
https://www.cfr.org/backgrounder/china-xinjiang-uyghurs-muslims-repression-genocide-human-rights
DNO, the dear lady must be addressed properly. The first line should read : Her Excellency, Mrs Sylvanie Burton……..
Madame President please tell us how many women are there in the all male China Communist Party government?
China, who for so long had a one child policy murdering girls can “show us how we can empower women”? Really?
I read the headline. Are you kidding me? 🤑
What do we think China’s Global Governance Agenda is?? Its handing down orders to a WHOLE PRESIDENT of a sovereign nation under the guise of gender equality and women’s empowerment. Reducing the seat of the president to just a geopolitical pawn in a global chess game. But yes lets create an office higher than the president that women can aspire to, because clearly that position is old news, just like that of the housewife.
“Its handing down orders to a WHOLE PRESIDENT of a sovereign nation under the guise of gender equality and women’s empowerment.” You do not disappoint. Pure horse manure. Give ONE example of such a dictate by China. One! Make sense.
The fervor demonstrated by our president towards the initiative in question, is on the verge of pornographic in my humble opinion. It does not exude any semblance of independence, neutrality or sovereignty to be honest. In fact it portrays a tendency for our leaders to think out loud from a position of a self inflicted inferiority complex, but this sense of inferiority is not shared nor accepted by everyone.
Has China Ever been lead by a woman? If we were to compare the Geisha to the Madame Robe who would we say is more “Empowered”?? Ms. Burton. As a man with a female child of Kalinago Descent, I urge you to take a look at the positions held by women now and historically in Dominican Culture. Olfrey, Charles, Skerrit, Sanford and now you Ms. Burton holding the highest offices of our land, wielding the ultimate power of decision making. How much more power is to be had Ms. Burton? That statement demonstrates a lack of appreciation for the strides we have made as a nation as pertains to women. But as PRESIDENT. You have the final say.
Who cares? Wish she would stay in China and never return to Dominican. Sacwe wicked soul
China and the empowerment of women in the same sentence must be a joke. Thats too funny. Chinese men love to Philippines and other Asian countries empower women. So Burton as a woman dont know what she needs as a woman for her empowerment she has to go to China for them to tell her what she needs to be empowered. lots of J As is in high places.
Here you go again spewing fart from your mouth! How the hell can China teach you how to empower yourself, when women in China are not empowered!
Women have no political power in China, they are below the level of “second class citizens in China!” Why don’t you shut up, perhaps find a way to elementary educated yourself on issue before you bray and embarrass your person so openly and often?
China don’t empower Chinese women, how the hell they going to empower, you?
Already you are a brainwashed Chinese slave!
I am living in a hypocritical country, and in a hypocritical region,(CARICOM). From as far back as my primary school days, i have been hearing myriad initiatives to help empower WOMEN.Mark you, i am not averse to women doing well, becoming professionals, etc. What baffles me is, if you were to ask me which of the two sexes is more at risk in the region (CARICOM), i’ll answer you in milli second, it’s MEN. But i seldom hear of plans, programmes and initiatives to have them change course in a massive way. The little that i hear of, i am afraid, is nothing to talk about.
Do we value men – women families?
Are we not afraid that we are ignoring a soon to be time bomb?
Are we empowering women only so that they shun men and just live on their own?
Do we empower them to take care of their husband and children? Someone please educate me.
I think the time has come when this empowerment, especially in CARICOM, has to incorporate both sexes,if not it’s going to boomerang back into our…
Most families in Dominica live in singles parent homes with multiple children manned by single mothers. These women, many of them unemployed, have to cater for the basic needs of their children – food, clothes, shelter plus schooling.
Most of these mothers often suffer financial embarrassment and sadly have to resort to begging or the oldest profession known to mankind.
Many of these women suffer physical and emotional abuse. Most have to suffer in silence because of fear as there is no proper shelters for battered women.
Talk is cheap. The President is just giving lip service to the multiplicity of problems faced by women in this country. There is no genuine advocacy on behalf of women in Dominica. This wordy article about the President concerns and advocacy for the beleaguered women in Dominica is just a farcical.