China lodged a diplomatic protest with New Zealand on Thursday after Foreign Minister Winston Peters called a Chinese-born lawmaker a “loudmouth” and told him to “go back to your own country” during a parliamentary debate, prompting condemnation from political leaders and a sharp response from Beijing.
The protest came a day after Peters, leader of the populist New Zealand First party, made the remarks during a debate on the government’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Peters had responded to heckling from Lawrence Xu-Nan, a lawmaker from the Green Party born in the northern Chinese city of Tianjin but who grew up in East Auckland, with advice to “go back to your own country”.
“Go back to your own country,” Peters said. “That’s where they lie like a flatfish, but they don’t lie like that here.
“This is called a democracy, unlike what you’re used to. Go back to where you’ve come from, you loudmouth.”
The comments quickly drew criticism from fellow lawmakers, including Prime Minister Christopher Luxon, who described them as “inappropriate attention-seeking comments”, according to local media.
Chinese Ambassador Wang Xiaolong also condemned the remarks, writing on X that, “A statement says more about the person that makes it than anything or anybody else.”
Escalating the matter diplomatically, the Chinese embassy said on Thursday that one of its officials had made solemn representations over Peters’ “negative China-related remarks” during a meeting with New Zealand’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade.
The embassy urged Wellington to “do more things conducive to bilateral relations rather than the other way around”, underscoring Beijing’s displeasure over the incident.
Peters, however, showed no sign of backing down. He dismissed his critics as “pearl-clutchers” and “communist shills”, while his ministry later said he stood by the remarks, arguing they were made in defence of “New Zealand’s democracy”.