 It sparked a protest among the Japanese politicians, like Yoshihide Suga who said that Okinawa Prefecture "is unquestionably Japan's territory, historically and internationally".In December 2016, Japan's Public Security Intelligence Agency warned the public that China is forming ties with the Okinawan independence movement through academic exchanges, with the intent of sparking a split within Japan.The report was criticized as baseless by the independence group professors asserting that the conference at Beijing University in May 2016 had no such connotations.