Agriculture in distant China (7)
I believe the answer is:
farming
'agriculture' is the definition.
(I know that agriculture can be written as farming)
'distant china' is the wordplay.
'distant' becomes 'far' (similar in meaning).
'china' becomes 'ming' (type of china).
'far'+'ming'='FARMING'
'in' is the link.
(Other definitions for farming that I've seen before include "Cultivation" , "Agriculture" , "Country activity" .)