Final Preps Underway for President Obama's Riverside County Stay

Sunnylands estate in Rancho Mirage will make final preparations Thursday for President Barack Obama's summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping, which will deal with such thorny issues as North Korea's nuclear program and Chinese cyberattacks on U.S. corporate and national security targets.

Obama and his Chinese counterpart will meet at Sunnylands Friday and Saturday for "in-depth discussions on a wide range of bilateral, regional and global issues," according to The White House. They "will review progress and challenges in U.S.-China relations over the past four years and discuss ways to enhance cooperation, while constructively managing our differences, in the years ahead," a White House statement said last month.

Obama will begin his day Friday in San Jose, then head to Los Angeles for a Democratic National Committee event. He will then travel to Palm Springs, meet with Xi around 4 p.m. and have a private dinner with him that night. Obama will spend the night at Sunnylands, meet with Xi until midday Saturday, then head back to Washington, D.C., according to the White House.

A White House official speaking on condition of anonymity said Tuesday that topics will range from "efforts to promote economic growth around the world to some of the leading security challenges that we face, like the situation in North Korea, to the ongoing necessity of cybersecurity."

U.S. defense officials have blamed some cyberattacks, including against American defense contractors, on the Chinese military.

"One of the issues that threatens to damage U.S-China relations, as well as potentially damage the international economy and China's reputation, is the use of cyber technology -- particularly as a means of obtaining intellectual property from American companies and institutions," said a senior administration official during a briefing before the summit.

"...I think that the message the president will send is that there's an expectation that all of us working together to protect the infrastructure of the global economy against cyber intrusion, and that countries need to meet their responsibilities."

White House officials said the meetings at Sunnylands will be somewhat informal, in contrast to the more rigid trappings of an official state visit. The summit will be Obama's first with Xi, who became president in March, although Obama and Vice President Joe Biden met Xi when he was vice president of China.

Sunnylands will remain closed to the public until next week.

"We are profoundly honored that President Obama has chosen Sunnylands as the venue for this important meeting," said Geoffrey Cowan, president of the Annenberg Foundation Trust at Sunnylands.

"(Ambassador) Walter and Leonore Annenberg were remarkable philanthropists and diplomats who hoped that their estate could become a 'Camp David of the West,' where the president would meet with world leaders to promote global peace and facilitate international agreements. The upcoming meeting between President Obama and President Xi begins to fulfill that vision."

Sunnylands, which was built in the mid-1960s, has hosted presidents, foreign heads of state, Supreme Court justices and celebrities. Frequent guests included Ronald and Nancy Reagan -- who celebrated New Year's there every year of his presidency -- and George H.W. and Barbara Bush.

Under Reagan, a U.S-Canadian trade agreement was signed at Sunnylands, and the Bushes hosted a state dinner there in honor of Japanese Prime Minister Toshiki Kaifu on one of the few occasions when a state dinner was held outside the White House.


– City News Service.