Throughout history, the empires seem to be ever shifting from East to the West! Starting with what we consider the oldest known empires, the Mesopotamian and Egyptian ones, the "world hegemony" was consequently taken over by the Hellenistic Empire, by the Roman Empire, by the Frankish one and - later on - by the Spanish and the English empires! Then, the center of power shifted further westwards and USA became the strongest world empire! And apparently the time has come for the "world hegemony" to shift even further westwards, to China!
Such discussions are often held on the internet. But most of us are treating them as if they concerned some distant future event. Few people realize that this "changing of hegemony" process is happening right now, right in front of our own eyes!
