Last Wednesday was a grim day for Chinese communities in Prato near Florence in Italy, after an elderly Chinese man's uncooperative behavior at a textile factory led to fierce clashes between hundreds of local Chinese nationals and Italian police. As reported, the police were carrying out a routine inspection of the plant, but many analyses and netizens point the other way - it was an anti-terror style crackdown by Italian authorities on Chinese factories and the local Chinese community was targeted.

Amid other similar cases worldwide, the incident shows the trend that local people tend to vent their anger against lagging economies on Chinese factories and small businesses abroad.

Two months earlier, a large anti-Chinese protest took place in Bogota, Colombia, in which demonstrators accused local Chinese businessmen of threatening their own survival. Only two weeks ago, angry Venezuelans raided a number of Chinese supermarkets and stores in the state of Sucre to protest Beijing's economic "dominance" over them.

With the development of manufacturing, a growing number of not only competitive Chinese goods, but also Chinese people and small companies have flooded abroad. There was a time when their businesses thrived thanks to attractive products with cheap prices.

But soon anti-Chinese sentiment started to emerge because Chinese small businesses overseas, which are only represented by a small amount of the local population, have been gradually taking the lion's share of the local market. Intolerance of local people slowly transformed to harassment.

It is undeniable that those overseas Chinese businessmen are diligent and fearless toward hardships. However, it should be noted that some of them are illegal immigrants. For instance, media reports claimed that Prato is home to about 16,000 Chinese nationals, but the real figure is closer to 50,000, most of whom are illegal workers.

The Los Angeles Times reported 663 Chinese nationals were caught when trying to sneak into the US through the US border with Mexico from October 2015 to May 2016.

Compared with State-owned enterprises, these people tend to be unfamiliar with or ignorant of local laws,  culture and customs. Against the background of China's "go global" strategy, they have caused negative impacts for the nation's image and its State-owned business.

The rights and interests of legal Chinese immigrants need to be protected by Chinese embassies overseas. Besides, more importance must be attached to coordination among different mechanisms within the country.