Runs through periods without leadership involving China (7)
I believe the answer is:
impales
'runs through' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'leadership involving china' is the wordplay.
'leadership' becomes 'imes' (I am not sure about this - if you are sure you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'involving' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'china' becomes 'pal' (china plate is Cockney rhyming slang for mate).
'imes' going around 'pal' is 'IMPALES'.
'periods without' is the link.
I am not very happy about this link. Some or all of it may be part of another bit of the clue.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Another definition for impales that I've seen is " Runs through".)
