Laguna Niguel : Think Tank to Play Host to Pacific Rim Meeting

The Monarch Beach Institute, a new Orange County-based think tank--the brainchild of wealthy developer and Democratic Party activist David Stein--is scheduled to play host next week to three U.S. senators, the former U.S. ambassador to China, and representatives of 14 countries of the Pacific Rim.

“Transitions in the Pacific Rim: Leadership for the Next 20 Years” is the theme of the conference, scheduled Thursday through Sunday at the Ritz Carlton hotel in Laguna Niguel.

The institute is, according to Stein, a nonprofit, nonpartisan research organization that will try to “bring together leading citizens from the public and private sectors to consider issues of contemporary society.”

The U.S. delegation to the conference includes U.S. Sens. William S. Cohen (R-Me.), Christopher J. Dodd (D-Conn.) and Gary Hart (D-Colo.), and Reps. Richard A. Gephardt (D-Mo.), Jim Leach (R-Iowa) and Stephen J. Solarz (D-N.Y.).

Leonard Woodcock, former president of the United Auto Workers and former U.S. ambassador to the People’s Republic of China, is also scheduled to attend with Intel Corp. Vice Chairman Robert N. Noyce and Richard Holbrooke, former assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific Affairs.

Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley will be one of the officials making opening remarks, according to the published conference schedule.

Deputy prime ministers from Malaysia and the Philippines are expected, along with Han Xu, China’s U.S. ambassador.