Former U.S. secretary of State and Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton has accused China of being behind cyber attacks against U.S. in a bid to steal commercial and state secrets.

The 67-year-old made the accusations against Beijing on Sunday at a New Hampshire campaign event.  She warned that the U.S. must be "fully vigilant" as China has made attempts to "hack everything that doesn't move in America."

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Clinton made it clear that despite the fact that she wanted to see a peaceful and prosperous China, she was also aware that Beijing's was robbing secrets from defense contractors. She also said that China has stolen "huge amounts of government information, all looking for an advantage."

"China's military is growing very quickly, they're establishing military installations that again threaten countries we have treaties with, like the Philippines because they are building on contested property."

Clinton's statement comes weeks after US intelligence Chief James Clapper said Chinese hackers were responsible for the massive breach of important data from the Office of Personnel Management (OPM).  

Despite the accusations, China has denied any involvement in stealing U.S. commercial or government secrets. Officials have described the allegations as "irresponsible and unscientific."

Reuters reported that on Monday Beijing dismissed Clinton's remarks, saying that China was itself a victim of massive hacking attacks.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying downplayed Clinton's remarks, saying that both countries face various challenges and have made collaborative attempts to handle the issue."China and the U.S. have taken a constructive spirit and approach to strengthening dialogue and cooperation to jointly face various challenges in line with the interests of both sides in a way that is conducive to peace and prosperity in the region and the world," Hua said.

Clinton is a leading candidate to win the Democratic nomination for the 2016 presidential elections. However, her opponents have used the OPM  data breach as point to caution voters about the misdeeds or inaction of President Barack Obama's Democratic-led administration.

According to the BBC, Republican presidential candidates Marco Rubio and Rick Perry have called for the Obama administration to employ a more direct approach to cyber threatening actions.  Both candidates want the U.S. to place sanctions against organizations and countries sponsoring illegal cyber activities.  Mike Huckabee thinks that the U.S. should retaliate and "hack China back," while Democratic candidate Martin O' Malley has said the answer lies in a better funding against cyber security attacks.

TagsHilary Clinton China Hacking, Hilary Clinton, OPM hack, OPM Hack China