China lodges formal protest after New Zealand foreign minister’s ‘go back’ slur in parliament

China has lodged formal diplomatic representations with New Zealand over “negative remarks” made in its parliament, after Foreign Minister Winston Peters told a Chinese-born opposition lawmaker to “go back to your own country”. The official protest on Thursday, accompanied by a rare social media statement from Beijing’s ambassador in Wellington, escalated a fiery domestic exchange over race and governance into a broader diplomatic issue.