(CNN) Director of National Intelligence James Clapper told an intelligence conference Thursday that the Chinese are "the leading suspect" in the massive hack of the Office of Personnel Management.

Responding to a question from CNN about who was behind the hack, Clapper said, "You have to kind of salute the Chinese for what they did," adding the U.S. would have done the same thing if it could.

These comments go further toward fingering Beijing for the hack than other administration officials have publicly done so far.