Officers will patrol with French counterparts to prevent fellow citizens being targeted by pickpockets and muggers

Paris police are to draft in reinforcements from China to help patrol the French capital during the summer tourist boom.

The foreign officers will be deployed to key landmarks to prevent Chinese visitors – around 1 million of whom come to France every year – being targeted by pickpockets and muggers.

A plan originating from the French Interior Ministry proposed that Chinese police officers would patrol with their French counterparts in Paris tourist spots. A ministry spokesperson refused to give details or numbers, but said their role would be preventative, and that they would operate as part of a global operation to protect tourists across the city.

Police say Chinese tourists often carry large amounts of cash, making them a target for attacks. Tourists from China are estimated to spend an average of €1,300 during their holidays, much of it on designer goods.

The move follows a rise in assaults by thieves on tourists from China. In March last year a group of 23 Chinese visitors were robbed in a restaurant shortly after arriving in Paris. The group was on a 12-day tour of Europe but stopped for dinner at Le Bourget in one of Paris's northern suburbs, where they were robbed of €7,500 cash, plane tickets and passports. The group leader was injured in the attack.

Afterwards, Sylvia Pinel, the tourism minister, said the government was determined to ensure the security of tourists to the country.

Tang Lu, of the Chinese Tourist Agency in Paris, said the incident was a familiar one. Chinese tourists are seen as big-spending visitors and are targeted in the belief that they are carrying large sums of money. "For us, Paris has replaced Rome in the table of cities where you have to pay the most attention," Lu told Le Parisien. "We are hearing about this kind of attack on Chinese visitors more and more often."

In central Paris, officers struggle to deal with organised gangs of thieves and pickpockets, many of them children, from the Balkans and eastern Europe, who harass tourists with fake "petitions" or demands for charity donations.

Jean-François Zhou, director general of Ansel Travel, which specialises in organising visits for Chinese tourists, welcomed the patrols. "The French police have a reputation in China for being lax. The presence of Chinese police might not only have a dissuasive effect but help in dealing with the tourists," Zhou told Le Figaro.

"They can also help victims to make a police complaint. Even if we can't put a police officer behind each tourist, their presence will give a sense of security."

The number of Chinese visitors to France is expected to be given a boost this year because of events linked to the 50th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic ties between Paris and Beijing.