Top Tweets for #Xivilizations

On July 29, New Zealand Foreign Minister Winston Peters told Chinese-born MP Dr. Lawrence Xu-Nan to "go back to your own country," igniting a fiery diplomatic feud with China. During a parliamentary debate on COVID-19 response measures, Green Party MP Dr. Xu-Nan interjected during a speech, prompting Peters to lash out. Peters called him a "loudmouth," telling him to go back to where "they lie like a flatfish" and claiming New Zealand is a democracy "unlike what you're used to." Dr. Xu-Nan moved from Tianjin, China to New Zealand in 1994, earned a PhD in Egyptology from the University of Auckland, and has lived in the country for over 30 years as a naturalized citizen. The outburst drew swift domestic and international condemnation. New Zealand Prime Minister Christopher Luxon criticized the comments as inappropriate attention-seeking. China’s Ambassador to New Zealand, Wang Xiaolong, responded on X, noting that "a statement says more about the person that makes it than anything or anybody else". Beijing's embassy followed up by lodging formal diplomatic protests. Peters refused to retract his comments, arguing that his words were a defense of Western free speech and political openness against authoritarian systems.