The suggestion that global power is now shifting from the West to the East is at best a half-truth and therefore misleading.

The power-shift theory is basically drawn from a judgement that the next few years will see a dramatic acceleration in the shift of global economic powers eastward. But it ignores the very fact that the majority of countries in the East are largely developing and poor countries.

The theory has gained more popularity recently as major developing countries such as China and India have been doing well in warding off the impact of the global financial crisis while most rich nations were plagued into severe economic downturn.

With a combined population of some 3 billion, China and India, the two vast countries in the East, will reclaim their positions as economic giants in this century, some Western media proclaimed.

This kind of power-shift theory, however, may have neglected an obvious fact that the two Asian countries are only developing nations with their per capita GDP lagging far behind developed countries, despite economic strides over the past decades thanks to their opening-up economic policies.

The World Bank put China and India's per capita GDP in 2009 at 3,687 and 1,122 U.S. dollars respectively, ranking 103 and 140 worldwide, whereas the per capita GDP of the United States amounted to 46,436 dollars in the year.

Therefore, the significance of China's and India's soaring GDP should not be exaggerated, considering the real scenario where a large proportion of people in the two countries are leading a relatively poor life, not to mention the huge gaps between the East and the West in technological know-how, military capability and political influence on international affairs.

Undoubtedly, it is true to say that global power is experiencing some changes in recent years thanks to the development of economic globalization and multipolarization process.

More and more countries and regions, or international bodies, such as the European Union, BRIC countries (Brazil, Russia, India and China), the Group of 20, have played greater political or economic roles on the world stage after the end of the Cold War, during which the world was dominated by two superpowers -- the United States and the Soviet Union.

Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi said recently that the world is witnessing a trend that various international forces are moving toward a relatively balanced direction, an inevitable outcome of multipolarization, economic globalization, and rapid scientific and technological revolution.

The process toward a multipolar world not only involves the rapid development of newly-emerging major developing countries, but also the strengthening of many developing countries as regional powers, Yang said.

This occurred not only in Asia, but also in Africa and Latin America, Yang added.

In fact, multipolarization has become the most significant trend of the modern world. Developing countries as a whole, not just those in the East, have been gradually rising on the world stage and should have more say on international affairs.

It's better to say that Western domination of the world is being diluted by a multipolar world, in which developing countries should have equal rights of development.

Meanwhile, an outstanding problem at present is that the reasonable rights and legitimate demands of developing countries do not receive due respect and attention.

It's much better for some Western theorists to recognize the trend of multipolarization and to help developing countries win equal say and rights of development, instead of ringing false alarm on the rise of certain major developing countries.

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