Hans van de Ven is a Professor of Modern Chinese History at the Faculty of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies, Cambridge University. Professor Hans van de Ven studied Sinology at Leiden University and then earned a Ph.D. in History and East Asian Languages at Harvard University. He has been teaching at Cambridge University and his research focuses on the history of the Chinese Communist Party, China's Second World War, and the history of the Chinese Maritime Customs Service. His works include China at War: Triumph and Tragedy in the Emergence of the New China 1937-1952 (2017), War and Nationalism in China: 1925-1945 (2003), and From Friend to Comrade: The Founding of the Chinese Communist Party, 1920-1927 (1991).