“GO BACK to your own country,” Winston Peters, New Zealand’s foreign minister, shouted at Lawrence Xu-Nan in Parliament on July 29th. “That’s where they lie like a flatfish(比目鱼),” he went on at Mr Xu-Nan, who left China for New Zealand when he was a boy. The Green Party MP had angered Mr Peters by asking, in a debate about New Zealand’s response to covid, if Mr Peters had been vaccinated. Helen Clark, a former Labour prime minister in whose government Mr Peters also served as foreign minister in the 2000s, said that the remark would “send a chill right around our migrant communities”, and questioned whether he could still manage relations with China, to which New Zealand sells a fifth of its exports.(海伦·克拉克表示，彼得斯的言论会让移民社区感到恐惧，并质疑他是否还能处理好与中国的关系。) The Chinese embassy lodge(提出（抗议等）)d a diplomatic protest.
“滚回你自己的国家去，”新西兰外长温斯顿·彼得斯7月29日在议会对劳伦斯·徐南喊道。“他们就像比目鱼一样躺在那里，”他继续对徐南说，后者幼年时便离开中国来到新西兰。这位绿党议员在关于新西兰应对新冠疫情的辩论中，询问彼得斯是否接种了疫苗，从而激怒了他。前工党总理海伦·克拉克表示，这番言论将“在我们移民社区中引起寒意”，并质疑他是否还能处理好与中国的关系——新西兰五分之一的出口销往中国。中国大使馆提出了外交抗议。
Mr Peters (pictured) first entered Parliament nearly five decades ago. Now 81 years old, he is the founder (and to date the only leader) of the populist(民粹主义的) New Zealand First party. Since the late 1990s he has drawn heavily on(大量利用；严重依赖) anti-Asian gibes(嘲讽；讥笑), usually dressed up as(伪装成；打扮成) anti-immigration rhetoric(花言巧语；修辞), to keep his small party in Parliament. And he has done well out of that, positioning himself as a kingmaker(造王者；关键人物) in both centre-right and centre-left coalition governments and serving as foreign minister three times, including in Jacinda Ardern’s first government from 2017 to 2020.
彼得斯（如图）近五十年前首次进入议会。现年81岁的他是民粹主义政党新西兰优先党的创始人（至今仍是唯一领袖）。自上世纪90年代末以来，他大量使用反亚裔的嘲讽言论，通常伪装成反移民的措辞，以维持他的小党在议会中的席位。他从中获益良多，将自己定位为中右翼和中左翼联合政府中的“造王者”，并三次出任外长，包括2017年至2020年在杰辛达·阿德恩的首届政府中任职。
Christopher Luxon, the prime minister and leader of the centre-right National Party, has kept Mr Peters as foreign minister despite telling reporters that he regarded his words as racist(种族主义的). The prime minister said Mr Peters was speaking as the leader of New Zealand First rather than in his role as the country’s foreign minister. But Mr Luxon must be counting the days(数着日子；急切等待) until October 1st, when parliament is due to be dissolved(解散（议会）) before a general election in November. At those polls he is hoping to tout(兜售；吹捧) a still-unratified(未批准的) free-trade agreement with India as the centrepiece(核心；最重要的部分) of his government’s trade policy. Mr Peters has loudly opposed the deal, calling it lopsided and objecting in particular to a provision that would allow a few thousand skilled migrants to enter New Zealand.(彼得斯大声反对该协定，称其不平衡，尤其反对允许数千技术移民入境的条款。) That has forced Mr Luxon to rely on Labour’s support to pass an enabling bill(授权法案).
总理、中右翼国家党领袖克里斯托弗·卢克森虽然告诉记者他认为彼得斯的言论是种族主义，但仍让他留任外长。总理表示，彼得斯是以新西兰优先党领袖的身份发言，而非以国家外长的身份。但卢克森一定在数着日子，等待10月1日的到来——届时议会将在11月大选前解散。在那次选举中，他希望将一份尚未批准的与印度的自由贸易协定作为其政府贸易政策的核心。彼得斯公开反对该协定，称其不平衡，尤其反对一项允许数千名技术移民进入新西兰的条款。这迫使卢克森不得不依靠工党的支持来通过一项授权法案。