Asian Development Bank: Asia's rich-poor gap growing

BEIJING (AP) - The wealth gap in China and other Asian countries is growing, hurting anti-poverty efforts and possibly fueling unrest, the Asian Development Bank said in a report Wednesday.

China had Asia's second-biggest and second-fastest-growing wealth gap since the 1990s, exceeded only by war-wracked Nepal on both counts, the bank said in an annual survey. China has seen thousands of protests in recent years over land seizures and other economic grievances.

"High inequality, particularly high absolute levels of inequality, leads to a disruption in social cohesion. You could have street demonstrations which could lead to violent civil wars," Ifzal Ali, the bank's chief economist, said at a news conference.

Ali said it was inappropriate to speculate when asked whether China should expect worse unrest. But he pointed to the experience of Nepal, where he said the recently ended decade-long civil war was most intense in areas with the highest inequality.