AMERICAN PURGED BY CHINESE REDS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP70B00338R000200050096-6
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 15, 2016
• Document Release Date: May 21, 2004
• Sequence Number: 96
• Publication Date: May 1, 1968
• Content Type: NSPR

his American citizenship."
-The pamphlet said that Mr.
ported.
The author said Mr. Ritten-
berg had no intention of re-
nouncing his American citizen-
ship. The Canton pamphlet
denouncing Mr. Rittenberg as-
serted that he had "retained
French, Spanish, Arabic and
Russian. In Novemiter 1965, at
a party given in Peking to mark
the .80th birthday of the
American-born writer Anna
Louise Strong, Mr. Epstein was
photographed at the side of
Mr. Mao.,
A former American citizen,
Mr Epstein is thought either
to, be a Chinese citizen or state-
less. The British Foreign Office
said lash month that it had
asked Sir Donald Hopson, the
British charge d'affaires in Pe-
king, to make inquiries about
reports that Mr. -Epstein, his
wife and Michael Shapiro, an
English-born writer who has
also been working for the For-
eign Languages Press, were be-
ing detained. by the Chinese
authorities.
Mr. Shapiro is believed to
have been refused renewal of
leis British passport in 1954.
However, the British Foreign
Office said it was treating the
three persons as entitled to
British protection until their
citizenship could be ascertained.
Mr. Rittenberg was "brought
up a strict Methodist by his
family near Charleston, S. C.,"
according to Edgar Snow in
"The Other Side of the River."
The United States Army sent
him to China where he was
"much impressed with the prob-
ity" of Communist military of-
ficers and their administration,
in contrast to the Nationalists,
Mr. Snow wrote.
Married Chinese Student
Mr. . Snow wrote that Mr.
Rittenberg married a Chinese
student, fathered two children
and took up broadcasting work
in Peking.
"He was, when I saw him,
convinced that he was helping
to promote good relations be-
tween the Chinese and Ameri-
can people-but not, of course,
between China and American
imperialism," Mr. Snow re-
headed the Foreign Languages
Press in eking.' n td edited
Fi"~n."a firmer ' ni
s or . e ash-few --y'e
e 200 IO6 ~~
n is
t it#enberg, Long an. Aide,
Reported Under Arrest
4 .'iiti
O HONG KONG, April 30-1
d Rittenberg, an American
South , Carolina w4 has
en living in China for 23
years and is reported under arrest, has been branded a
`counterrevolutionary double-
s aler" by.a Chinese Commu-
t t pamphlet.
The pamphlet also linked Mr.
gittenberg to Wang Li, a senior
icial purged last year. It
id the American had a
Meteoric rise" last year, hav-
g been appointed head of
Peking's Central Broadcasting
11ureau, but was transferred
When Ivfr,,Wang fell.
' According ' to informed
ttrces, Mr. Rittenberg has
en twder. arrest in Peking.
or a lust five mpnths, The
~ar`ked,f~ iror lpternial circula-
s fate. , ,
Tticrharued from the United
nberg ,,,.. ..married a Chinese girl
dorkin' as writers and trans-
Peking propa-
tors' 0f _#q
Amoilg,diploinats here, these'
ch stf9pp supporters of the::
ao Tsg ;iung and the Peking
Apart from Mr. KittenDerg,
veral _rgigners who have
Gommu, ists.havp been reported
ip trouble during the last few
,RWO the , Y _ include Israel
Epstein. w ose parents Were
--Mr. Wang, as a senior mem-
ber of the Central Cultural
Revolution group and a deputy
editor of the auth
oritative
party publication Hung Chi,
gained control of the broad-
casting bureau, according to
the pamphlet.
In February of last year, Mr.
Wang "privately handed over
powers of the Central Broad-
casting Bureau to a three-man
group heeded by Rittenberg,"
the pamphlet declared. Kuan
Feng, another member of the
Cultural Revolution Group was
also implicated.
The pamphlet stated: "In this
way, under the scheming of
anti-party ambitionists Wang
Li and Kuan Feng, an Ameri-
can of the politician type with
doubtful antecedents actually
usurped leadership of the Chi-
nese broadcasting station and
moreover exercised dictator-
ship over the proletariat for
thing rarely heard of in the
half a year. This is an odd
World.