Hong Kong student protest leaders consider visiting Beijing during APEC summit
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Protesters and people walk under hundreds of folded paper umbrellas at the occupied area in Causeway Bay, a shopping district of Hong Kong Thursday Oct. 30, 2014. Student democracy activists who have occupied Hong Kong streets for a month suggested Tuesday that direct negotiations with senior Chinese Communist Party officials could be a way to end their standoff with the local government. (AP Photo/Koji Ueda) (The Associated Press)
Hong Kong student protest leaders are considering visiting Beijing while it hosts a major Asian summit next week to press their demands for greater democratic reforms.
Student leader Alex Chow said at a rally late Thursday that protest organizers would discuss the idea of trying to talk to Chinese officials during the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum that begins Nov. 5.
Chow said it's unclear whether protest leaders would even be allowed to make it past mainland Chinese border checkpoints.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Protesters are in a standoff with the government over Beijing's proposed curbs on the inaugural election of the city's leader.
The protesters have been occupying major streets in three districts around Hong Kong for five weeks to press their demands but there's no end in sight to the impasse.