Beijing’s recent hostile moves toward Canberra were a warning to the United States and its allies, according to analysts, as relations between China and Australia continue to plummet.

Canberra’s relations with Beijing have gone from bad to worse in recent months. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian earlier this week posted a doctored image on Twitter, which depicted an Australian special forces soldier slitting the throat of an Afghan child. Australia’s Prime Minister Scott Morrison blasted China’s Foreign Ministry and asked for an apology, which was rejected. He also implored Twitter to remove the image, also without success. China’s Ministry of Commerce has also imposed extra duties to multiple Australian goods, including wine, cotton, coal, timber. Some wine manufacturers have to pay an import tax up to 212% of the price of its products.

Ministry of Commerce spokesperson Gao Feng said on Thursday at a regular press briefing that China’s temporary anti-dumping tax on Australian wines, which started on Dec. 1, would be imposed for no more than four months, but could be extended to nine months if special circumstances occurred.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying also said the recent issues in China-Australia relations were rooted in the fact that “some people in Australia” had taken measures “extremely unfriendly to China” and “repeatedly violated China’s interests.” Hua didn’t specify her claims in the press briefing.

Zhu Zhiqun, an international relations professor at Bucknell University in the U.S., told the BBC that China’s recent hostility was to set an example to the U.S. as Australia was a key ally in the Asia-Pacific region.

“From Beijing’s point of view, Australia has become the vanguard of the United States’ anti-China confederacy, so Beijing will adopt a series of measures to sanction Australia,” Zhu said. “China knows very well that its voice in the international arena is very weak, so it feels it is necessary to take the initiative [in countering the Western society].”

Sung Wen-ti, lecturer at Australian National University’s Institute of Asia-Pacific Studies, also said Beijing’s move aimed to test Canberra on whether it could change its position on key policies regarding China.

“Australia’s economy relies mostly on China. With Australia’s limited number of agricultural and mineral exports, China feels that Australia will likely budge after measures,” said Chen Jie, political science associate professor at the University of Western Australia.

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