ACT leader David Seymour has vowed to maintain the party's hardline on China if, as polls predict, they are part of the New Zealand government after next month's election.
The right-wingers have been the toughest talkers on China in New Zealand - often derided as a soft touch on the superpower - over the last term of office.
ACT championed a parliamentary resolution to label human rights abuses in Xinjiang as a genocide, before the Labour government scotched the debate.
It has consistently called out the growing assertiveness of the ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP), including in the Pacific, where Beijing is growing its sphere of influence.
ACT's positions are often at the other end of the spectrum to centre-right opposition National, which in its last term of office championed China as an export market and grew ties.
The two parties' positions on China loom as a likely source of friction in the next government should they win office.
Mr Seymour told AAP he would not allow a shift to government or ACT's position as a junior coalition partner to silence their views.
"Yes we can," he said, when asked if they could keep speaking up.
"That's the beauty of coalitions. You can have different concerns and different voter interests represented within a government.
"(ACT's position) is driven by our constituents, our Chinese Kiwi friends and neighbours who are quite exercised about this.
"They are concerned about the CCP's influence within mainland China, its expansion to Hong Kong and its threats to expand to Taiwan, and also the centralisation of power within the CCP around President Xi (Jinping).
"These are all significant issues that New Zealand needs to have a debate about and be wary of."
Under leader Chris Luxon, National is pledging to court international investment to help build Kiwi infrastructure, including China's Belt and Road Initiative.
Mr Seymour said he wouldn't stand for it.
"If National's transport policy leaves the door open for the Chinese government to build New Zealand roads, ACT's well thought out transport policy shuts it," he said.
"If we look at the experience of countries that have become part of the Belt and Road projects, it's been pretty challenging for them because at some point, you've got to pay and if you can't, there can be other consequences.
"We can't follow the lead of Pacific nations who have accepted investment from China, only to find they're now in serious debt to a communist regime flexing its muscles."
Speaking in Wellington on Friday, Labour leader Chris Hipkins sided with ACT.
"We've been clear we don't see any investment from China through the Belt and Road Initiative happening," he said.
Mr Seymour's party advocates for closer defence ties with Australia, and a commitment to spend two per cent of GDP on defence.
"New Zealand has always been a country where bad stuff happens elsewhere and I really hope that that continues to be the case for for the rest of my life," he said.
"But there's no law that says that New Zealand must remain safe or that we will never be threatened."
ACT also want to increase assistance to Ukraine, with New Zealand's financial contributions among the smallest per capita in the developed world.
