"Europe has to exercise influence where it is united and it is united in economic and trade matters," Lamy asserts. "We have our own attitude vis-a-vis China, which is a political rivalry, but an economic interdependence. And most Europeans do not believe we should do with China what the US is doing, which is trying to isolate China. Isolating China is not the way to go. If you make China more autarkic, China will be more dangerous than what it is. So there are differences, and I think the EU has in a way to play its own game in this very complex world."