Published on 30/07/2026 - 10:08 GMT+2•Updated 10:08

China has lodged an official complaint after New Zealand's foreign minister Winston Peters told a Chinese-born MP to "go back to your own country" during a heated parliamentary exchange in Wellington.

Peters, the leader of the NZ First party, made the remarks on Wednesday after Green Party MP Lawrence Xu-Nan asked him, "Are you vaccinated?" during a debate over New Zealand's response to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Xu-Nan was born in Tianjin, China, but grew up in New Zealand.

Peters responded that the lawmaker had "come here five minutes ago" before telling him: "Go back to your own country."

"This is called a democracy, unlike what you're used to. Go back to where you've come from, you loudmouth," Peters added.

Speaking to the 1News channel on Thursday, Xu-nan said: "It's a little bit unbelievable to have a Minister for Foreign Affairs, I guess, scapegoating the migrant communities as a distraction to shift the blame away from all of the harm that this government is doing."

China lodges complaint

The remarks prompted a rare intervention from China's ambassador to New Zealand, Wang Xiaolong, who wrote on X that he normally avoided commenting on domestic politics but that "sometimes, a statement says more about the person that makes it than anything or anybody else".

The Chinese embassy in Wellington said on Thursday it had lodged a complaint with New Zealand's foreign ministry over what it described as "negative China-related remarks made by a certain politician".

Peters has refused to back down, arguing his comments were a defence of democratic freedoms.

"We live in a democracy that includes free speech and rights," he wrote on X, adding that he would "not resile from that point".

New Zealand Prime Minister Christopher Luxon, whose National Party governs in coalition with NZ First, condemned Peters' remarks as "inappropriate attention-seeking".

NZ First politicians have faced criticism over similar remarks before. Last year, Peters' deputy Shane Jones shouted "send the Mexicans home" at MP Francisco Hernandez, who was born in the Philippines.

Mexico's ambassador, Alfredo Pérez Bravo, subsequently issued an official diplomatic communication to New Zealand's Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, opting to raise the issue through diplomatic channels rather than publicly.

Peters later withdrew his support for Jones' remarks, acknowledging that "in the heat of the moment" they "may have been expressed differently."