Gusuku Islands crisis

The Gusuku Islands crisis is an ongoing confrontation between Akitsu and over the Gusuku Islands, which China claims as the Penghu Islands.

Background
In 1953 China started claiming the Gusuku Islands based on "historic grounds" resulting in tensions between the Chinese government and the Akitian government. However, the issue was not raised any further by either government until recent times.

In October of 2014, a Chinese government-affiliated think tank called Chinese Penghu held an online referendum on the status of the Gusuku Islands, claiming a result of 94% of the population in favor of becoming part of China. However, the validity of this referendum is disputed and the referendum itself has been criticized as a sham by many groups, particularly after the end of the vote. Chinese Penghu has refused to release the number of people who voted in the referendum, let alone how many voted for each side, leading to speculation that Chinese Penghu may have intentionally allowed people from China to vote in the referendum in order to ensure a "yes" result. These claims are supported by statistics from sources such as Alexa Internet and similar providers. According to these statistics, the voting page was accessed over 2 million times from China, with 230,000 of those visits coming from Beijing alone.

Sources within Akitsu have also conducted surveys, finding that 95% of eligible voters in Gusuku did not take part in the referendum organized by Chinese Penghu. They also showed that of the 5% who did vote, 80% of them voted "no".

On December 15th, 2014 it was announced that the issue of the status of the Gusuku Islands would be put to a ballot in the 2015 Akitian general elections in an attempt to gauge the local residents public opinion.

Confrontation
On the morning of December 16th, 2014 the Imperial Akitian Coast Guard detected a number of unidentified vessels within the vacinity of the Gusuku Islands. It was believed that these unidentified vessels were Chinese fishing vessels, as Chinese fishing vessels had periodically made incursions into the waters surrounding the Gusuku Islands. Instead what they found was that no only were there Chinese fisherman attempting to enter the Gusuku Islands, but that those Chinese fisherman were being escorted by the China Coast Guard.

Since the incursion on the morning of the 16th, the Akitian coast guard maintained a constant presence in the region, switching ships out when one runs low on supplies or can no longer stay in the region for some other reason. The Chinese also maintained a constant position, using the same tactics that the Akitian coast guard used.

The Akitian government sent a messages of protest to the Chinese government demanding that Chinese vessels leave, but the Chinese government never answered them. In Chinese media the Chinese government stated that Chinese sovereignty over the Gusuku Islands was "indisputable" and demanded that the Akitian government "halt their provocative actions. The Akitian government responded by affirming Akitian sovereignty over the islands and stating that it was the Chinese that started this confrontation when the China Coast Guard vessels entered into waters surrounding the Gusuku Islands.