Sadly, China's all but abandoning one large Asian region (11)
I believe the answer is:
baluchistan
'asian region' is the definition.
(I know that Baluchistan is a geographic region)
'sadly china's all but abandoning one large' is the wordplay.
'sadly' indicates anagramming the letters.
'abandoning' suggests deleting specific letters.
'one large' becomes 'L' (eg in clothes sizes).
'chinas'+'all'+'but'='chinasallbut'
'chinasallbut' with 'l' removed is 'chinasalbut'.
'chinasalbut' with letters rearranged gives 'BALUCHISTAN'.
I've seen this clue in The Independent.
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