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Beijing responds after New Zealand foreign minister tells lawmaker to go back

The exchange was sparked during a Wellington parliamentary debate on the government’s COVID-19 pandemic record, after Winston Peters’ sharp reply to a vaccination question.

Reported · Written up by our desk · Trade & Tariffs

A parliamentary clash in Wellington has drawn a rare public response from Beijing’s envoy in New Zealand after Foreign Minister Winston Peters told a Chinese-born opposition lawmaker to “go back to your own country,” according to the SCMP.

The controversy erupted during debate over the government’s COVID-19 pandemic record, after Green Party member Lawrence Xu-Nan, who was born in Tianjin, asked Peters whether he was vaccinated. Peters responded with a personal attack during the session.

SCMP reported that the comments prompted the Chinese ambassador, Wang Xiaolong, to weigh in via a social media post on Thursday, adding an international dimension to the domestic debate over governance and race relations in New Zealand.

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