China has spoken out against the United State’s cyber-spying policies, after revelations of hacking from both ends.

China’s official news agency has called the US the “biggest villain in our age”, while reporting on leaks from Edward Snowden, who says universities are among the Chinese sites targeted for internet espionage, alleging the NSA broke in to servers at the prestigious Tsinghua University in Beijing.

Cyber security featured prominently at a summit in California two weeks ago between Present Barack Obama and Chinese leader Xi Jinping.

The US warned China that the issue of Chinese "cyber-intrusion" and theft of intellectual property could strain relations, while China said it did not want the issue to become a source of friction.

On Australian shorse the Government has been accused of signing up for the United States’ PRISM Program, which has allegedly seen mounds of private information divulged to the Australian government from US sources.