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 The digital art by the artist
who goes by the name Wuheqilin, referring to a
one-horned Chinese mythical beast, shows two
figures with white pointed hoods interviewing a
scarecrow in a field of cotton and Black slaves.
One of the journalists holds up a microphone
with a logo that looks similar to "BBC News".
At the bottom of the illustration reads: "Can
you tell us what unfair treatment you have
suffered, Miss Scarecrow?"
"I've been sexually assaulted and abused," a
placard next to the scarecrow says.
Steadying the cross on which the scarecrow is
held is a hooded figure wearing a Minneapolis
police uniform, an apparent reference to the
police officer who pressed his knee on the neck
of a dying George Floyd last year.
Western governments and rights groups have
accused authorities in the western Chinese
region of Xinjiang of detaining and torturing
Uighurs in camps, drawing fierce denials from
Beijing, who says the camps are vocational
training centres that help combat religious
extremism.
Earlier this year, BBC reported that women in
the camps had been subject to rape, sexual abuse
and torture.
The Chinese foreign ministry said at the time
that the BBC report was "without factual basis"
and the people interviewed by the BBC have been
"proved multiple times" to be "actors
disseminating false information".
Last week, Swedish clothing retailer H&M faced a
public backlash in China when social media users
circulated a statement the company made last
year announcing it would no longer source cotton
from Xinjiang.
Chinese celebrity endorsers have since dropped
several foreign retail labels including Nike.
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 The assault on Western brands
followed coordinated sanctions by the United
States, the European Union, Canada and Britain
on Chinese officials for alleged human rights
abuses in Xinjiang, which Washington has said
have amounted to genocide.
In Wuheqilin's illustration, which has garnered
1 million "likes", the blood-red letters "HM"
can be seen carved onto the trunk of a tree,
while in the background is a black antique
cotton scale that looks similar to Nike's swoosh
logo.
Entitled "Blood Cotton Initiative", the
illustration also refers to the Better Cotton
Initiative (BCI), an international group that
promotes sustainable cotton production which
said in October it was suspending its approval
of cotton sourced from Xinjiang, citing human
rights concerns.
Nike, H&M and a number of Western brands are BCI
members.
Wuheqilin, who has 2 million followers on
China's Twitter-like microblog Weibo, in
December published a digitally manipulated image
of an Australian soldier holding a bloodied
knife to the throat of an Afghan child, drawing
the fury of Australian Prime Minister Scott
Morrison.
Wuheqilin declined to comment when reached by
Reuters.
Nike, H&M and BCI did not immediately comment.
(Reporting by Ryan Woo and Beijing newsroom;
Editing by Michael Perry)
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