Artist from China, imbued with strength of character (8)
I believe the answer is:
magritte
'artist' is the definition.
(Rene Magritte, Belgian painter)
'china imbued with strength of character' is the wordplay.
'china' becomes 'mate' (china plate is Cockney rhyming slang for mate).
'imbued with' is an insertion indicator.
'strength of character' becomes 'grit' (I've seen this before).
'mate' placed around 'grit' is 'MAGRITTE'.
'from' is the link.
(Other definitions for magritte that I've seen before include "Belgian surrealist painter, d.1967" , "RenZ -, Belgian artist" , "Rene -, Surrealist painter" , "Belgian surreal painter" , "Belgian surrealist artist" .)