New Delhi, Oct. 14: New Delhi today raised the pitch of the ongoing diplomatic row with Beijing, sending a strong message against China’s involvement in the Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK).

“The Chinese side is fully aware of India’s position and our concerns about Chinese activities,” external affairs ministry spokesperson Vishnu Prakash said in response to a statement, reported in official news agency Xinuha, from Chinese President Hu Jintao that his country would remain engaged in Pakistan.

“We hope the Chinese side will take a long-term view of the India-China relations and cease such activities in areas illegally occupied by Pakistan,” Prakash said.

The PoK pitch came a day after tit-for-tat responses sparked by Beijing’s objections to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s October 3 visit to Arunanchal Pradesh.

“We have seen the Xinhua report quoting the President of China as stating that China will continue to engage in projects with Pakistan inside Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir. Pakistan has been in illegal occupation of parts of the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir since 1947,” Prakash said.

The Chinese President, during a meeting with Pakistan Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani yesterday, had outlined a major project to upgrade the Karakoram highway connecting the two countries.

The President also promised help in the $1.5-billion (Pakistani rupees 12,450 crore) Neelam-Jhelum hydroelectric project in PoK despite India’s stated concerns.

A consortium consisting of China’s Gezhouba Water and Power Company and China National Machinery and Equipment Import and Export Corporation was awarded contracts by Pakistan last December to build the project in eight years.“Howsoever, the international situation may change, the people of China and Pakistan are always joined in hearts and hands,” Jintao had said.

As New Delhi raised the pitch by bringing PoK into the picture, Vice Chief of Air Staff, Air Marshal P.K. Barbora, said the Indian Air Force was upgrading airfields in Ladakh and Arunachal Pradesh, and that the Chinese shouldn’t have objections.

“We do not say anything about Chinese airfields in Tibet or on their activity. Why should they?” Barbora asked.

India this year re-activated three advanced landing grounds in Ladakh, near the border with China.

A fourth strip, at Chushul, was to be reopened too. But the plan is being shelved as the site is too close to a point where Indian and Chinese armies hold border meetings.

In Srinagar, home minister P. Chidambaram touched on another prickly issue. He said no visas would be given to Chinese semi-skilled and unskilled workers. “We have made it very clear that Chinese workers should come to India only on employment visas. There will be no more business visas. The employment visas will be given only to highly skilled workers of China. We do not need semi-skilled or unskilled workers from China. We have enough (such) workers in India,” Chidambaram said.

The minister also said the Centre had taken up with Beijing its practice of issuing stapled visas — instead of the usual visas stamped on passports — to Indian citizens from Jammu and Kashmir.

Army chief General Deepak Kapoor is now visiting Myanmar, a country with which India has kept military-to-military ties, despite sanctions against Yangon’s army junta, largely to cut into China’s strategic space.