Sidney Rittenberg is an American journalist, scholar, and Chinese linguist who lived in China from 1944 to 1979. He worked closely with People's Republic of China founder Mao Zedong, military leader Zhu De, statesman Zhou Enlai, and other leaders of the Chinese Communist Party during the war, and was with these central Communist leaders at Yan'an. He witnessed first-hand much of what occurred at upper levels of the CCP and knew many of its leaders personally. Later, he was imprisoned in solitary confinement, twice, for a total of 16 years. He was the first American citizen to join the CCP. Rittenberg's connections and experience have enabled him to run a successful consultancy business representing some of the world?s biggest brands, such as Intel, Levi Strauss, Microsoft, Hughes Aircraft and Teledesic. 

August 14th, 1921 in Charleston  /  Died:   Aug 24th, 2019 - aged 98