Winston Peters targeted Chinese-born MP Lawrence Xu-Nan during a parliamentary debate and attracted a subtle rebuke on social media
2-MIN READ2-MIN1 ListenCao Jiaxuanin BeijingPublished: 1:59pm, 30 Jul 2026A parliamentary clash in Wellington has elicited a subtle rebuke from Beijing after New Zealand’s Foreign Minister Winston Peters told a Chinese-born opposition lawmaker to “go back to your own country”.The comments on Wednesday prompted a rare social media response from Beijing’s envoy in Wellington, adding an international dimension to an already contentious domestic debate over governance and race relations in the South Pacific nation.
The controversy erupted during a parliamentary debate on the government’s Covid-19 pandemic record.
When Green Party member Lawrence Xu-Nan – who was born in Tianjin and moved to New Zealand in 1994 – asked Peters if he was vaccinated, the populist New Zealand First leader responded with a sharp personal attack.
“Go back to your own country,” Peters said during the session, claiming Xu-Nan had “come here five minutes ago” and going on to say: “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.”
The Chinese ambassador to New Zealand Wang Xiaolong weighed in to the issue on Thursday in a social media post.
