Cowan speaks on President Obama's weekend visit to Sunnlyands estate

The Annenberg Foundation Trust’s Sunnylands estate is surely in high gear preparing for the highly publicized two-day meeting between President Barack Obama and President Xi Jinping of the People’s Republic of China this weekend. “We are profoundly honored that President Obama has chosen Sunnylands as the venue for this important meeting," Geoffrey Cowan, university professor, former dean of USC Annenberg and president of The Annenberg Foundation Trust at Sunnylands told The New York Times. The intent of the meeting is essentially to give the leaders a chance to talk about a wide range of bilateral, regional and global issues in an environment free of talking points and the normal pressures of meetings concerning international relations. As reported in The New York Times, Sun Zhe, director of the Center for U.S.-China Relations at Tsinghua University in Beijing said, “China hopes that the visit will help to build personal ties and friendship between the two leaders so that [potential] conflicts in relations can be moderated.” With an olive tree decorated golf course, a vast collection of Chinese art and views of the San Jacinto Mountains to the west, the 200-acre estate is said to be the perfect environment for international diplomacy, in fact, that is what it was meant for. “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,” Cowan said. “The upcoming meeting between President Obama and President Xi begins to fulfill that vision, which is continued by their children and grandchildren who serve as our trustees.” According to The New York Times, with more than six hours of meetings planned over the weekend and the hopes of unscripted dialogue, administration officials hope Mr. Obama and Mr. Xi will really get to know each other, while exchanging ideas about how best to manage the complex relationship between the world’s two biggest economies. Click here for more on Sunnylands. Click below for more on President Obama and President Xi's weekend meeting. The Seattle Times The New York Times