72% of Okinawans Vote Against US Marine Corps Relocation Plan

Okinawans have been complaining about helicopter noise and safety issues with Marine Corps Air Station Futenma for many years, but they don’t like the relocation plan either:

Just over half of Okinawa’s 1.15 million registered voters turned out Sunday to deliver a resounding “no” vote in a referendum on the plan to relocate Marine Corps Air Station Futenma.
Out of the 601,733 voters who turned out, 434,149 — or approximately 72 percent — voted against the reclamation of land in Oura Bay at Camp Schwab for a new military runway. The plan is to close Futenma and relocate Marine air operations to Henoko on Okinawa’s less populated northern coast.
The vote is sure to further complicate matters for Japan’s central government, which has pushed forward with the project for decades despite a persistent local protest movement.
Construction of the runway is already underway and Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has said the relocation project will continue regardless of the referendum’s result.

Stars & Stripes

You can read more at the link, but considering what this retired Japanese General said last week, it makes me wonder if any money going to the anti-base groups is funded by the Chinese?