From October 16th the grandees of China’s Communist Party will gather in the Great Hall of the People in Beijing for their five-yearly congress. Not a teacup will be out of place; not a whisper of protest will be audible. The Communist Party has always been obsessed with control, but under President Xi Jinping that obsession has deepened. Such control-freakery has wider implications for China and the world. At home Mr Xi makes all the big calls, and a fierce machinery of repression enforces his will. Abroad, he seeks to fashion a global order more congenial for autocrats.

Rightly, the West finds this alarming. No despotic regime in history has had resources to match modern China’s. This is why Western governments now treat Chinese innovation as a national-security issue. Many are boosting subsidies for industries such as chipmaking. Perhaps, though, they have it wrong. Mr Xi’s obsession with control may make the Communist Party stronger, but it also makes China weaker than it would otherwise be.

A large explosion badly damaged the Kerch road-and-rail bridge, which connects Russia with occupied Crimea and is vital for resupplying Russian forces operating in the south of Ukraine. Although Ukraine neither confirmed nor denied that it had carried out the attack, many assumed that it had done so. Only very limited traffic is now able to use the bridge. It was unclear whether the explosion was caused by a lorry-bomb, an underwater drone or a missile.

The Bank of England acted again to stabilise bond markets and increased its maximum daily purchases of long-dated gilts. The central bank is buying the bonds through a temporary programme it created after markets took fright at the government’s plans for unfunded tax cuts. The programme is supposed to end on October 14th. British pension funds want it to be extended. They are taking a hit from collateral calls on derivatives linked to bond prices, leaving them with a short-term financing problem.