Follow in the footsteps of Italian visiting India and China (7)
I believe the answer is:
imitate
'follow in the footsteps of' is the definition.
'italian visiting india and china' is the wordplay.
'italian' becomes 'it'.
'visiting' is an insertion indicator.
'india' becomes 'i' (phonetic alphabet: alpha, bravo, charlie etc.).
'and' is a charade indicator (letters next to each other).
'china' becomes 'mate' ('China plate' is rhyming slang for 'mate').
'i'+'mate'='imate'
'it' put into 'imate' is 'IMITATE'.
(Other definitions for imitate that I've seen before include "Follow suit" , "Copy someone" , "Take as a model" , "Reproduce" , "Appear like, in behaviour or appearance" .)