Rain on CCTV's Moscow Parade Coverage

China Central Television ditched a much-anticipated live broadcast of the military parade on May 9 in Moscow and filled the airtime with a hodgepodge of grainy World War II documentary footage sprinkled with a few quick shots of President Xi Jinping on the review stand and troops marching across Red Square.

The change miffed millions of Chinese viewers eagerly awaiting the pageantry marking the 70th anniversary of the Allied victory in World War II. Who rained on the parade? Speculation was all over the map: the propaganda authorities suddenly got uneasy over the coziness of Xi and Russian President Vladimir Putin sitting next to each other giving the impression of a serious alliance; the military hardware on display could trigger latent fears among the Chinese of Russian menace; China did not want the Red Square spectacle to upstage its own victory day commemoration later this year; and hints of sabotage were thrown in for good measure.