China expects the Philippines to protect the legal rights of Chinese utility State Grid Corporation, a Foreign Ministry spokesperson said on Thursday, in response to recent media reports that the Philippine government will expel Chinese experts from the country over security concerns.

The Philippine authority is expected to deal with the reported issue with fairness, Hong Lei, a spokesperson of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said at a routine press conference in Beijing on Thursday.

Philippine Energy Secretary Carlos Jericho Petilla was quoted by local media outlet rappler.com as saying late on Monday that the government would not renew the work visas of 18 Chinese technicians employed by the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP) when they expire in July 2015.

State Grid won the bid for a 25-year concession to run the Philippines' national power transmission network in 2007, greatly contributing to local grid network construction, said Hong.

State-owned firm State Grid Corporation of China, which has a 40 percent stake in the NGCP, refused to comment on this when contacted by the Global Times on Thursday. Fax inquiries to the Ministry of Commerce remained unanswered by press time.