News that Beijing has ordered state firms to halt purchases of farm products could well be an opportunistic political maneuver stemming from fundamental weakness on the demand side in China, said analysts.

That came in response to President Donald Trump, who said last week he would strip Hong Kong of its special status with the U.S.

But soybean demand has not been strong in China anyway.

"Partly, it's because of the virus outbreak (that) actually impaired the logistic arrangements between China and the U.S., and also after the virus outbreak, what we see is that the domestic demand in China is actually collapsing," said Hao Hong, head of research and chief strategist at the Bank of Communications.

"With logistic concerns and also with collapsing domestic demand, it's not difficult to see how China would require less of the soybean input," Hong told CNBC on Tuesday.

Just last week, China reported an African swine fever outbreak in a northwestern province.

"Supplies are adequate near-term due to current shipments, giving China freedom to threaten," said Suderman.

is a major exporter and a large source of China's soybean imports and China is the world's largest importer of soybeans.