Sir John Key believes New Zealand could have a "magnificent" relationship with China in the future but hard work is needed to get to that point.
The former New Zealand Prime Minister's comments came in an interview with Andy Boreham for China state-affiliated media.
In a wide-ranging interview looking at New Zealand's relationship with China, Sir John said in an ideal world, it would go from "strength to strength" as we could become an even more "trusted voice" in Beijing.
"If we do work really hard we could have a magnificent relationship and China could be a really important counterpart and New Zealand could be seen as a really important go-between voice for other countries into China," Sir John said.
"We need to work on mutual trust, we got to work on ways to communicate with one another, which is seen as helpful."
It's not just New Zealand that Sir John believes will fall back in love with China, it's also mainstream thinking.
"Look what goes around comes around, if in 2008, the world was like we want to embrace China, in 2016 we want to jettison China, mark my words mainstream thinking will come back to wanting to embrace China again, it will because the economic opportunities are vast," Sir John said.
"Whether people like it or not and some people don't, China's domestic economy is so significant now that it can fund most of its own growth and own development. So it relies far less on the Western world, it's just a question of how much we want to engage."
Sir John has kept close ties with China since stepping down as Prime Minister in 2016, which he believes is important. He also hit out at so-called China experts in New Zealand who are critical of his close relationship with the country.
"Show me any relationship ... that helps build a better relationship when you cut people off or you spend your life yelling and screaming at them. How does that really change anything?" Sir John said.
"The reality is you get progress in any relationship and actually progress on important things from climate change and trade to whatever when you have a good working relationship not when you're standing at ten paces and shouting with each other."
The former Prime Minister also touched on China's relationship with Taiwan.
He doesn't believe China will invade Taiwan in his lifetime but was critical of US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi visiting the island nation in August.
Pelosi said her trip was intended to express American solidarity with the Chinese-claimed island, but Sir John thought it was "pretty reckless".
"She's had a long view of things and to be fair to Nancy Pelosi she hasn't changed and she has been critical of China and anti-China and all that sort of stuff," he said.
"She's at the end of her political career. To go and take a delegation to Taiwan is really poking the bear, isn't it?
Sir John thought the trip didn't achieve anything except putting "friction" into the relationship with China and forcing a response from Beijing.
He said China was "very measured" in its response to Pelosi's visit, which risked pushing relations between Washington and Beijing to a new low.
"Despite what people might say, my opinion is they're not out there looking for a fight, they're out there looking to take people out of poverty," he said.
"Yup, they will never relinquish their territorial rights, but I don't think New Zealand would relinquish its territorial rights."
