US, not UK. You can also only take credit for being the first mover so long. Markets don't give a shit who did it first, they only care who does it best.
China's network, IC and military tech is far superior to UK's, proven by the fact that China has not one but 2 RF engineering giants, multiple fabs using 300 mm wafers and <28 nm tech, has world leading industries in every single aspect of electronics from semiconductor design to equipment to displays to PCBs to RF all bigger, better and with more patents than anything in the UK, has the biggest shipbuilding industry in the world, put men in space, has a rover on Mars and a rover on the far side of the moon. If you can't even do something well in peacetime how can you do something well under the extreme stress of conflict?