Trade and competition is not war, it's not his remit
We haven't declared war on China, and he has no remit to hack it for commercial aims.
This statement is well out of his bounds from a General:
"Under its 'Made in China 2025' strategy, China has explicitly declared the ambition to dominate these technology frontiers. It includes artificial intelligence, advanced computing, quantum technologies, robotics, autonomous systems, commercial space technologies, additive manufacturing and the Internet of Things, along with new generations (5G and beyond) of the mobile telecommunications that will connect it."
For a while Boris was trying to position the UK for a US-UK-China three way. Recognizing that the US is no longer the technological leader and shifting the UK slowly over to broader cooperation. Huawei 5G, China funded Nuclear power stations and post Brexit economic co-operation. That was quickly spiked with a dodgy attack on Huawei by the USA, and Boris doing a U-turn.
Same in Australia, their PM, Malcom Turnbull, did a "China Reset" speech back in 2018, he got attacked for it by Peter Dutton (a Trumpette), and Dutton attempted to oust him in August and then again a few months later, forcing out Turnbull before year end.
Dutton did the : "War with China cannot be ruled out..." speech a few days ago, trying to claim trade as war. He is also the 5-eyes rep for Australia that helped undermine encryption.
I point out that this General in this article is likely in the "hi-viz set" of people, he gets to see all the internet comms inside UK political circles, so if he thinks he sets policy, it makes UK a military run state with a civilian veneer, similar to Myanmar.