Asian ruler losing lead in race in China (3)

I believe the answer is:

han

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'race in china' is the definition.
The definition suggests a singular noun which matches the answer.

'asian ruler losing lead' is the wordplay.
'asian ruler' becomes 'khan' (I've seen this before).
'losing lead' means to remove the first letter.
'khan' with its first letter taken off is 'HAN'.

'in' is the link.

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for han that I've seen before include "Ethnic group of majority of Chinese people" , "Ancient dynasty of China" .)

I've seen this clue in The Independent.

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