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.
