Heard it recently (forget where) that for 5000 years the 'Chinese' have been the most dominant civilisation, except for the anomalous last 200.
It's definitely what the Chinese themselves consider the truth.
Looking historically, Europe was a backwater when it came to the global economy or military might well into the 19th century. Technological advances did however begin to pull Europe up as early as the late middle ages.
If anybody is interested in these things, the starting point would be the classic "Guns, Germs and Steel" by Jared Diamond (on why Europeans ended up ruling the world, and not i.e. the Papua New Guineans)
Another great read is "Why the West Rules for Now" by Ian Morris, where he looks at the numbers behind various civilizations and judges their comparative strengths through history. An interesting fact from this book: In the 13th century, central China was on the verge of the industrial revolution, 400 years before England. But then the Mongols came ..
For a short, topical and informative read, "The Revenge of Geography" by Robert B. Kaplan is a good choice, about how the US is totally losing the plot and the Chinese stepping in with their long view of history and realpolitikal take on geograpy. A topical book and worth a read if one wants to understand how the modern world is shaping up - and having been several times to East-Africa recently, I can definitely say that Robert seems to have been very prescient.