THE growing concerns that the influx of Chinese students in Cagayan province threatens national security could trigger xenophobia and racism, a top Chinese diplomat warned.

"This is worrying. If things move in this direction, personally, I am not quite optimistic about the prospect. We have to protect our citizens; we have to protect the Philippines-China relationship," said the official who spoke on condition of anonymity.

In a House resolution they filed recently, Cagayan 3rd District Rep. Joseph Lara and Isabela 3rd District Rep. Faustino Dy noted "an alarming increase in the number of Chinese coming to Cagayan as students enrolled in universities."

According to reports, around 4,600 Chinese students are in Cagayan.

The Chinese diplomat said there are "many fallacies in this accusation."

"This is an over-exaggeration and intentionally false to start with," he said.

He said the Chinese students came to the Philippines "legally" and that they obtained their entry documents legally.

"Now here is the Armed Forces of the Philippines, National Security Council and Philippine National Police saying that they are threatening national security. There are many other foreign students from neighboring countries, including Indonesia and Thailand, even from Nigeria and Africa, and now they are singling out Chinese students. That is called racism," he said.

The diplomat said the baseless accusation immediately reaped criticism from several sectors, such as Chinese NGOs, Chinese communities and several civic leaders.

"What is worse is that we heard and received reports from Chinese companies here in the Philippines that the [Philippine National Police] is now investigating Chinese workers," the official said.

"We also received reports that [Armed Forces of the Philippines Chief of Staff Gen. Romeo Brawner Jr.] has told local government officials to be vigilant against Chinese in their jurisdiction, even saying that they should be careful of infiltrators," he added

The official said some politicians are "linking everything, every aspect of our relationship with the maritime differences."

"That is an abuse of the concept of national security as both leaders of China and the Philippines have agreed that the maritime differences are just a small part of the relationship between the two countries. It is not the sum total of our bilateral relations," the diplomat said.

"Now they are saying this is a major concern, that this overwhelms everything else. This is an abuse," he said.