As a Chinese who previously studied in the UK, I pay particular attention to news that relates to both countries. Chinese President Xi Jinping's UK trip last week can be hailed as the grandest event in the two countries in recent days, and we could see every detail of Xi's itinerary on both traditional media and social media.

I read a piece in your newspaper titled "Xi visit may bring boost for Chinese studies." I'm amazed by the new changes claimed in the article by a postgraduate Chinese student in the UK, as when I studied in the UK four years ago, there were not many British people having an interest in learning Chinese and the British government hadn't articulated a series of plans to promote cultural exchanges.

On a wider political landscape, it is hard to calculate how overseas Chinese students in the UK can affect bilateral ties. There are many reasons that Chinese students choose the UK as their destination. It is an opportunity to explore an exotic culture, improve English skills, and get a quality higher education that is considered to have greater career value than Chinese degrees.

But one distinct feature of overseas Chinese students is that they are too young to focus on politics. Many go abroad right after their undergraduate study or even earlier, thus they don't have a clear vision of what Chinese society is like and how China interacts with the world. And when they come to the UK, they will find that their Western peers are not interested in what family background they come from, but in their views about various issues in China such as human rights and the Chinese government's policy on Xinjiang and Tibet.

While Westerners hold an aggressive and critical view toward China, how can Chinese students remain silent only because they know nothing about these issues? The fact is that they are not able to counteract perceived anti-China biases that are popular in the Western public and media.

Many Chinese netizens were amazed by Chinese Ambassador to the UK Liu Xiaoming's performance when he was interviewed by the BBC prior to President Xi's UK tour. In face of questions about "sensitive" issues raised by the pushy anchor, Liu's answers won applause with his superb eloquence and agile thinking.

More importantly, he dismissed prevalent Western biases and defended China's image with convincing words rather than spouting clichés.

It requires years of efforts and experience to behave like a mature diplomat as Liu did. And nowadays, young Chinese students study abroad for their own sake, not their country's. In recent research by Henry Chiu Hail, a PhD student in sociology at the University of California at Irvine, he found that even when Chinese students feel offended by their Western peers' criticism about China, they would not talk about sensitive topics to avoid conflicts.

But as individual interests converge more with the country's fate day by day, it requires overseas Chinese students to have a broader political picture in mind. When Western values still dominate the world, they can serve as a bridge that link Chinese ideas with Western ones.

Susan Wong, a previous student in the UK and currently a freelance writer based in Beijing