WASHINGTON, Dec. 12 (Xinhua) -- It is indeed a silver lining that U.S. and Chinese educational communities have come out to support each other as unfavorable U.S. policies and the surging COVID-19 pandemic disrupted the educational exchanges between the two countries, a senior Chinese diplomat has said.

"I have heard a bunch of touching stories" about the bilateral cooperation on education during the pandemic, Yang Xinyu, minister counselor for educational affairs at the Chinese Embassy in the United States, told Julia Chang Bloch, founder of U.S.-China Education Trust and former U.S. ambassador to Nepal, on Thursday in a conversation.

"Earlier this year when China was undergoing the peak of the pandemic, U.S. educational institutions reached out to render support," said Yang.

For example, many U.S. universities, like the University of Virginia, made serious promise that they would make every effort to secure safe lodging for the Chinese students despite campus closure and dormitory shutdown, she said.

And when the United States was challenged with surging confirmed cases later on, their Chinese partners and friends were ready to pay back, she said.

"Chinese medical experts shared their experience in research and clinical practice with American medical care personnel. Chinese universities communicated with American universities online on how they managed to provide a safe campus environment for their students and faculty," she said.

Moreover, for those Chinese students who cannot return to their U.S. universities amid rising cases in the United States, and newly enrolled students who have no visas to travel to the country, many U.S. universities and their Chinese partner universities worked out plans to help them, Yang added.

"They can start the fall semester at the partner university of their American university in China with their courses and credits being recognized," she said.