Brussels - Premier Zhu Rongji has called the European Union one of China's most important partners in a multi-polar world.
Making his first visit to EU headquarters in Brussels for talks with the President of the European Commission, Mr Romano Prodi, Mr Zhu urged Europeans to gain a better understanding of his country.
But he slapped down a question about human rights as rooted in ignorance and said a crackdown on human smuggling gangs was the best way to stop migrants dying in trucks across the English Channel.