Perhaps because he is so familiar with Chinese affairs, he was one of the few foreign reporters who seemed not to have been infected by the carnival atmosphere of the elections. He also did not think that mainland China ought to democratize in the near future, mainly because "China really is so big--1.2 billion people--if they start to democratize, won't there be chaos?"
也許是對中國事務太過熟悉，他似乎是少數未感染到這次大選嘉年華似的歡樂氣氛的外籍記者，他並不認為中共在近期內應該民主化，主要在於「中國實在太大了，十二億人，民主起來不是要大亂嗎？」