ver the past couple months, there’s been a steady stream of negative comments about the pace of Chinese soybean imports. Amid this, the level of imports has continued to accelerate, with the expected May imports, 9.2 million metric tons, just short of the all-time record set in July 2015 at 9.5 million metric tons. Even this summer’s imports aren’t expected to decline that much.

Every week, we hear a comment or two about China asking for...