About

Patricia M. Kim is a fellow at Brookings and holds a joint appointment to the John L. Thornton China Center and the Center for Asia Policy Studies. She is an expert on Chinese foreign policy, U.S.-China relations, and the politics and security of East Asia. At Brookings, she co-leads the Global China Project and the Brookings-CSIS Project on Advancing Collaboration in an Era of Strategic Competition.

Previously, Kim served as a senior China specialist at the U.S. Institute of Peace, where she directed a project on U.S.-China strategic stability and served as the principal investigator for a major report on China’s growing footprint in Africa and the Middle East. She was also a Stanton Nuclear Security Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, International Security Program Research Fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, and postdoctoral fellow at the Princeton-Harvard China and the World Program at Princeton University.

Kim’s writing and analysis have been widely featured in prominent journals and media outlets such as Foreign Affairs, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and The Washington Post. She frequently briefs U.S. government officials in her areas of expertise and has testified before the House Intelligence Committee and the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Terrorism, Nonproliferation, and Trade.

Kim received her doctoral degree from the Department of Politics at Princeton University and her bachelor’s degree with highest distinction in political science and Asian studies from the University of California, Berkeley. She is fluent in Mandarin Chinese and Korean, and proficient in Japanese. Kim is a member of the National Committee on U.S.-China Relations and a term member of the Council on Foreign Relations.

Affiliations:

  • Council on Foreign Relations, term member
  • National Committee on U.S.-China Relations, member
  • Areas of Expertise

    • Chinese foreign policy
    • U.S.-China relations
    • East Asian regional security and politics
    • U.S. alliances
    • Korean Peninsula
  • Past Positions

    • Global Fellow, Woodrow Wilson Center
    • Senior Policy Analyst on China, United States Institute of Peace
    • Visiting Scholar, School of International and Public Affairs, Columbia University
    • Stanton Nuclear Security Fellow, Council on Foreign Relations
    • Postdoctoral Fellow, Princeton-Harvard China and the World Program
    • Research Fellow, International Security Program, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, Harvard Kennedy School of Government
  • Education

    • Ph.D., Princeton University
    • B.A., University of California, Berkeley

Media and Appearances

<p>There is a bipartisan consensus on the fact that China poses a broad challenge to the United States across multiple domains. I don’t believe we have a clear consensus on the precise mix of policies that are necessary to address this challenge. There certainly isn’t a consensus on how much de-risking and decoupling is necessary to strike the right balance between national security concerns and upholding American values and principles that have long held dear the free flow of information, people, trade and open markets.</p>

There is a bipartisan consensus on the fact that China poses a broad challenge to the United States across multiple domains. I don’t believe we have a clear consensus on the precise mix of policies that are necessary to address this challenge. There certainly isn’t a consensus on how much de-risking and decoupling is necessary to strike the right balance between national security concerns and upholding American values and principles that have long held dear the free flow of information, people, trade and open markets.

<p>South Korea is currently juggling a number of competing interests. While the Yoon administration has vowed to enhance defense cooperation with the United States to deter the growing nuclear and missile threat from North Korea, it also needs Beijing’s cooperation to manage the North Korean nuclear challenge.</p>

South Korea is currently juggling a number of competing interests. While the Yoon administration has vowed to enhance defense cooperation with the United States to deter the growing nuclear and missile threat from North Korea, it also needs Beijing’s cooperation to manage the North Korean nuclear challenge.

<p>Beijing has long bristled at moves to strengthen the U.S.-(South Korea) alliance and South Korea’s efforts to plug into U.S.-led initiatives in the region… Chinese leaders have called on their South Korean counterparts to oppose exclusive regional groupings and may choose to use China’s economic leverage to keep Seoul from aligning too closely with Washington and the Quad.</p>

Beijing has long bristled at moves to strengthen the U.S.-(South Korea) alliance and South Korea’s efforts to plug into U.S.-led initiatives in the region… Chinese leaders have called on their South Korean counterparts to oppose exclusive regional groupings and may choose to use China’s economic leverage to keep Seoul from aligning too closely with Washington and the Quad.

<p>While there’s some debate about the precise state of North Korea’s missile capabilities, including the new hypersonic missile it claims to have tested, what is clear is that North Korea’s continued advancement of its nuclear and missile programs are exacerbating the security dilemma in the region. Because diplomacy has failed thus far to restrain Pyongyang, Northeast Asian states, especially South Korea and Japan, feel as if they have no other choice but to increase their own military capabilities and joint capabilities with the United States to deter, or in the worst case, preempt, a North Korean attack. Beijing, however, claims these moves shift the military balance in the region in a way that threatens its own security, and that it must continue to advance its own strategic capabilities in response. In sum, North Korea’s ever-advancing missile and nuclear programs are creating major ripple effects on the region.</p>

While there’s some debate about the precise state of North Korea’s missile capabilities, including the new hypersonic missile it claims to have tested, what is clear is that North Korea’s continued advancement of its nuclear and missile programs are exacerbating the security dilemma in the region. Because diplomacy has failed thus far to restrain Pyongyang, Northeast Asian states, especially South Korea and Japan, feel as if they have no other choice but to increase their own military capabilities and joint capabilities with the United States to deter, or in the worst case, preempt, a North Korean attack. Beijing, however, claims these moves shift the military balance in the region in a way that threatens its own security, and that it must continue to advance its own strategic capabilities in response. In sum, North Korea’s ever-advancing missile and nuclear programs are creating major ripple effects on the region.

<p>While the Biden administration has been very successful thus far on the alliance-building front, we’ve yet to see the establishment of a sustainable working relationship with China, largely because of Beijing’s resistance to the Biden administration’s proposed framework. I would count the upcoming summit as a success if the two leaders are able to jointly affirm that neither side seeks conflict or a new cold war and that they are empowering officials at the working levels to lay the foundations for responsible competition, including jointly working on pressing issues such as crisis management, nonproliferation, and climate change.</p>

While the Biden administration has been very successful thus far on the alliance-building front, we’ve yet to see the establishment of a sustainable working relationship with China, largely because of Beijing’s resistance to the Biden administration’s proposed framework. I would count the upcoming summit as a success if the two leaders are able to jointly affirm that neither side seeks conflict or a new cold war and that they are empowering officials at the working levels to lay the foundations for responsible competition, including jointly working on pressing issues such as crisis management, nonproliferation, and climate change.

Filter by
Date