Sean Stein, president of the US-China Business Council, said his organization has worked for more than 50 years to improve commerce and trade between the two countries. "And that mission hasn't changed. That mission continues to this day," he said. Stein also said the number of American companies that have invested in Shanghai keeps going up and stressed the importance of mutual understanding. He said understanding "begins with an understanding of a country's history, a country's culture, and most of all, a country's people".

　　Sakolsky, whose tree-planting story was cited by Xie earlier in the evening, turned to the young people in the room. "The young people are our seeds. We must water them because they will become our future," he said. He also stressed what people of different countries share in common: "It's not a Chinese Earth, it's not an American Earth. It's one Earth."

　　Jeff Rogers, chief executive officer of Musco Lighting, an Iowa-based company with ties to China dating back to the 1990s, spoke about a youth softball exchange program launched with partners in Shanghai two years ago. Instead of simply having Chinese and American teams compete against each other, the program mixed players from the two countries so they could play together. "We look forward to the opportunity to continue to have kids and people learn the world is more the same than it is different," Rogers said.

　　The ShanghaiEye Night events were held under the guidance of the Information Office of the Shanghai Municipal People's Government and jointly organized by Shanghai Media Group, the World Intangible Cultural Heritage Protection Center, Newtone Consulting and the Washington Chinese Community Alliance.