China's behind inspection impasse (9)
I believe the answer is:
checkmate
'impasse' is the definition.
Although both the answer and definition are singular nouns, I cannot see how one could define the other.
'china's behind inspection' is the wordplay.
'china' becomes 'mate' (china plate is Cockney rhyming slang for mate).
'behind' says to put letters next to each other.
'inspection' becomes 'check' (check is a kind of inspection).
'mate' put after 'check' is 'CHECKMATE'.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for checkmate that I've seen before include "Winning chess position" , "Winning call on board" , "defeat on board" , "ending on board" , "Conclusion of chess game" .)