Tabloid support for south-east Asian inhabitant (3)

I think it could be either:

Which length description are you looking for?:

3,4

sun

'tabloid' is the definition.
(The Sun, UK newspaper)

'south-east asian inhabitant' is the wordplay.
'south' becomes 's' ('S' can be a synonym of 'south').
'east asian inhabitant' becomes 'un' (I can't justify this - if you can you should believe this answer much more).
's'+'un'='SUN'

'support for' is the link.
This may not be right. Some or all of it may belong to another bit of the clue.

(Other definitions for sun that I've seen before include "Nice weather" , "Star; newspaper" , "Star; paper" , "Centre of Earth's orbit" , "Rag" .)

I've seen this clue in The Guardian.

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