Beijing's embassy in New Zealand said it had raised an official complaint Thursday after top diplomat Winston Peters told a lawmaker of Chinese descent to "go back to your own country". Populist NZ First leader Peters was asked by China-born Green Party member Lawrence Xu-Nan: "Are you vaccinated?" during a heated debate about New Zealand's response to the Covid pandemic on Wednesday. In response, Peters said the lawmaker, who was born in the Chinese city of Tianjin but grew up in New Zealand, had "come here five minutes ago". The comments sparked a rare intervention from Chinese ambassador to New Zealand Wang Xiaolong.