Babakura Bukar, a spokesman for the Borno State ministry, said the attack occurred Friday morning at a road construction site in the city of Maiduguri. He said it was not immediately clear if the Chinese national had survived the bullet wound.
The shooting comes about two weeks after another Chinese man was shot dead in a town outside Maiduguri.
Authorities blamed a radical Islamist sect know as Boko Haram for that earlier killing, but Bukar declined comment Friday on who authorities suspect in this attack.
No group immediately claimed responsibility.
Authorities blame Boko Haram for more than 680 deaths this year alone, according to an Associated Press count.
(Copyright 2012 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)