Yes, they can just buy from existing miners, with a bit of a premium if they want the equipment fast. Also any first world government can easily mass produce ASIC equipment if they wanted to do it, there's no technical hurdles.
Hmm... then why are the vast majority of ASIC manufactured in China?
(the hurdles are perhaps more economic as well as social)
I am pretty sure Australia (the first world country that I come from) could *not* do this as they don't manufacture nearly *any electronics* nowadays.
Australia could do it if they could do it economically and with a competitive price. They can't make money from it is the only reason they are not doing it. But if like you said, when the government don't care about printing more money, then they could easily do it. China is not some technologically advanced country, in fact all their chip maker machines are imported from ASML, which is an European company. China have cheap labor, that's about it.