BEIJING, June 18  -- A think tank of the People's Liberation Army issued a report on Wednesday, saying that the global influence of Western countries has declined while developing powers keep rising.

The Defense Policy Research Center of the Academy of Military Sciences of the PLA said in the Strategic Review 2013 that the world is in a new era featuring development and chaos, reforms and crises, cooperation and competition.

Western countries have lost their relative superiority on the world stage, while the emerging countries, especially the major developing countries, keep rising, causing a trend of power fragmentation, balance and multi-polarization, the report said.

As the Asia Pacific region has become the powerhouse of the world economy, its maritime geopolitical importance is increasingly obvious, and disputes over previously insignificant islands will be more complicated in the future.

The report said mankind's exploitation of ocean, space, cyber space and polar regions brings invaluable development prospects but also unprecedented security challenges.