Australian prime minister Scott Morrison has escalated tensions with China, seemingly marching in lockstep with the Trump administration. Immediately after his government blamed a June cyberattack on a “sophisticated state-based actor” — an obvious code for China — Morrison announced a A$270 billion spending package to bolster the country’s military capacity. Australia will purchase long-range anti-ship missiles, upgrade its cyber warfare capabilities, develop a high-tech underwater surveillance system, and recruit hundreds more to the Australian Defence Force.

Australia’s ruling Liberal-National Coalition is also proposing a bill that will give the federal government power to veto any agreements reached between foreign governments and Australian state governments, municipalities, and even universities. Designed to override any independent relationships that state governments or other actors might form with China, the proposed law has been criticized as “complete overkill” by a former state premier.

This has coincided with a dangerous resurgence of anti-Asian racism sparked by COVID-19. Nearly 400 racist attacks against Asian-Australians were recorded in the first two months of the pandemic. They have ranged from being spat on, to more extreme cases including one in which a white woman pulled a knife on two Vietnamese-Australian sisters while racially abusing them.