It’s true that asian standards of the ideal beauty has generally always been that of the Western/ Caucasian features— that’s why all the premium cosmetic companies offer Asian-market only stuff like skin-whitening creams; and nose-jobs are in demand and Western (White) models are in demand for Asian countries.
There is this accepted form of institutionalized racism amongst the asian cultures— but no different than other cultures and races; I’ve worked for Black clients who have rejected models whom them have deemed "too dark", and Black models who've asked me to lighten their skin in post. But I don’t think there was anything intentionally malicious with this cover, just a poorly thought out, and poorly-executed concept. (maybe the Chinese photographer was looking at Maholy-Nagy and Man Ray images and wanted to copy their styles… You know, I always wished high-profile designers like Rei and Yohji would cast [more] Asian for their shows and campaigns, but I would only want to see that happen if they wanted to— not because of PC pressures. A topic for a whole other discussion!