PHNOM PENH, May 20 -- Approximately 2,000 Chinese businesspeople and tourists have crossed the Vietnamese border into Cambodia these days to escape anti-China riots in Vietnam, a senior Cambodian official said Tuesday.

"Some 2,000 Chinese nationals have fled Vietnam to Cambodia," Deputy Prime Minister and Interior Minister Sar Kheng told reporters. "We treat them the same as other tourists."

Following Vietnam's intensive disruptions of China Oilfield Services Limited's normal drilling in waters of China's Xisha Islands in the South China Sea earlier this month, protests broke out in some Vietnamese cities and escalated into looting and violence targeting Chinese enterprises and nationals.

The violence has left two Chinese dead and more than 100 others injured. Firms from countries like Singapore, Japan and the Republic of Korea in Vietnam were also affected.

Referring to hearsay that Vietnamese will hold protests against China in Cambodia, Sar Kheng said that Cambodia will not allow any foreigners to use Cambodian territory to protest against other nationalities.

"They have to comply with Cambodian law, cannot do anything against the law," he said. "I have worked on this issue with the Khmer-Vietnamese Association in Cambodia already, and they agreed not to hold such protests in Cambodia."