Houthi militias are attacking ships in the Red Sea. The Black Sea is filling up with mines and crippled warships. The Baltic and North seas face a shadow-war of pipeline and cable sabotage. And Asia is seeing the largest build-up of naval power since the second world war. This week’s cover package in Asia, the Middle East and Africa is about sea power. As we write in a leader, the tensions threaten the world economy and global security. Disorder looms on the high seas.

Our cover in the rest of the world examines the astonishing rise of the electric-car industry in China, which was probably the world’s biggest car exporter in 2023. An influx of cheap Chinese electric vehicles is coming to Western markets—if protectionist politicians do not stand in the way. In a leader we argue that Chinese cars should be welcomed, not feared, by the rest of the world. And in an accompanying Briefing we explain how expertise in batteries, and a vast domestic market, are giving Chinese firms an edge.

On January 17th I will interview Sam Altman of OpenAI and Satya Nadella of Microsoft at the World Economic Forum, an annual get-together of tech and business bigwigs. If you subscribe to The Economist we have reserved you a (digital) seat—sign up here to watch live as we discuss AI’s impact on jobs, safety risks and what the next iteration of ChatGPT means for OpenAI, Microsoft and the world.