Regarding the center: It's not further east. Dubai is setting itself up as the place for the rich from that axis to come and chill out. Hong Kong is just a sea port, Singapore has no wish to have 3rd world citizens in there and Shanghai is just a playground for young french men.
... with one of the highest concentration of major banks and biggest financial management hubs outside of NYC.
I thought the center is where the money is, always has been. From Rome to Florence, then London, then to the New World and NYC, and now switching over to Asia.
> Shanghai is just a playground for young french men.
And, Dubai is a place where celebs can go slumming as the streets rise with unpaid mortgages and backed-up sewage systems.
I'm sure the places we've named are more than just their rumor and stereotype.
What I mean is that these far east places are more focused on the west, and less on the 3rd world. Go to shanghai or hong kong - there are very few Africans. But go to Dubai...
The new center of the 3rd world is in the UAE.