When the two sat down for talks, Li expressed his condolences from China over the act of terrorism in Christchurch in which 50 people were killed at two mosques last month. He wished the injured a speedy recovery.
Li said the relationship with New Zealand has sustained momentum and steady growth.
"Before you came here you expressed how much importance your country gave to relationships with China and we want to defend our comprehensive strategic partnership and I know this is also the wish of New Zealand," he said.
"We attach high importance to our relations with New Zealand and we are ready to strengthen our relationship on the basis of mutual respect and mutual benefit."
Li wanted to expand practical co-operation and people-to-people exchanges.
He wanted to seek the broadest possible common ground in shared interests "and I hope the business communities of both countries enjoy a more enabling and more transparent environment when they make investments or do business in each other's markets."
Ardern thanked Li for the condolences.
She cited former Labour Prime Minister Norman Kirk in recognising China in 1972 and former Labour Prime Minister Helen Clark signing a free trade agreement in 2008.
Ardern said she had wanted to come to China "to underline the importance that we place on our relationship with China".
"It is one of our most important and far reaching relationships, a point I have made in my public speeches over the past year.
"The New Zealand Labour Party in particular is really proud of the record of engagement that we have with China."
She told reporters before the meeting she planned to discuss the issue of Huawei with Li.
The last time Ardern met Li was in Singapore in mid-November last year, two weeks before the Government Communications Security Bureau (GCSB) gave a red light to Huawei's involvement in Spark's 5G plans.
It was also before the GCSB joined other Five Eyes partners in December in naming the Chinese Ministry of State Security (MSS) as being central to a global campaign of cyber-enabled commercial intellectual property theft.
Also high on the agenda are ongoing negotiations to upgrade the 2008 free trade agreement, aspects of which have left New Zealand worse off in terms of tariffs and access to key Chinese sectors than other countries that negotiated FTAs more recently.
It has been making slow progress. After the initial decision in 2014 to address an upgrade, the first round of talks was not held until April 2017.
The Great Hall of the People is on the edge of Tiananmen Square. It was built in 1959, 10 years after the founding of the People's Republic of China. It is used for ceremonial and state occasions, including the annual meeting of about 3000 members of the National People's Congress.
PM OPENS EMBASSY IN BEIJING
The Christchurch mosque massacres were referred to several times during speeches to open New Zealand's embassy in Beijing today.
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, accompanied by partner Clarke Gayford, referred to a gathering of solidarity two weeks ago after 50 people were killed in the attacks on March 15.
"You gathered together as New Zealanders to acknowledge that we have not experienced that kind of violence in that kind of way on our shores before, that that did not change the values that we hold as a nation, that we are a country of multiple ethnicities, multiple religions and faiths, different creeds.
"Ultimately we are joined together by a set of values," she said.
"Those are values that no matter where we are in the world, we hold dear, that we are open, inclusive, that we welcome those who choose to come our shores."
Ardern thanked the 80 or so embassy staff for their work, saying a building was only as good as the people who worked in it and the opportunities they provided to strengthen ties with China.
Ambassador Clare Fearnley invited the Prime Minister to unveil a plaque.
Part of the new build includes a room, He Pakiaka, which is lined with Maori tukutuku panels and carvings (whakairo).
The room actually formed part of the old embassy from 1986 - inspired by former Race Relations Conciliator Hiwi Tauroa - and has been reassembled as a special meeting room in the new building. It also comprises the ambassador's residence.
The architect from the embassy project was Dominick Mazur.
The new embassy was commissioned in 2014 by then Prime Minister John Key. It has cost $50 million to build. It holds staff from eight different agencies - immigration and tourism have their own offices not far from the compound.
- By political editor Audrey Young
