China must embrace change, daughter thought (9)
I believe the answer is:
meditated
'thought' is the definition.
(meditating is a kind of thinking)
'china must embrace change daughter' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite see how this works, but
'change' could be 'edit' (editing is a kind of changing) and 'edit' is present in the answer.
'china' could be 'mate' ('China plate' is rhyming slang for 'mate') and 'mate' is found in the leftover letters.
'daughter' could be 'd' and 'd' is located in the answer.
No letters remain.
This may be the basis of clue (or it may be nonsense).
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for meditated that I've seen before include "Engaged in spiritual contemplation" , "pondered" , "thought" , "Engaged in religious contemplation" .)