[3] In his book "The Man Who Stayed Behind", Rittenberg stated that he was the second American citizen to join the CCP, the first being the Lebanese-American Doctor Ma Haide (born Shafick George Hatem.)

[8] Rittenberg was one of the English-language translators for the fourth volume of the Selected Works of Mao Zedong, along with Frank Coe, Solomon Adler, and Israel Epstein.

Rittenberg said he was summoned to the capital and he went, expecting to play a role in promoting the Communist takeover to the rest of the world.

Rittenberg attributes his survival in solitary confinement to a poem by Edwin Markham:[11] This first imprisonment lasted six years and resulted in his wife Wei Lin whom he had met in China divorcing him as she was told nothing about his disappearance.

[9] Once he was released he returned to his work promoting the Communist Party However in 1968, he was again imprisoned, this time for 10 years under the same suspicion of spying.

His second Chinese wife, Wang Yulin, was also sent to a labor camp for three years due to her being association with the "American spy".

Later he was a supporter of the Cultural Revolution and briefly associated with Mao's inner circle, leading a group of rebels to take over the state broadcasting institution.