In July 1957, the economist Ma Yinchu, president of Peking University, published his New Population Theory. He proposed controlling population growth. Mao Zedong, Kang Sheng and others opposed it. From the Anti-Rightist Campaign on, Ma was criticized across the country. In 1960, he was forced to resign as president, and he was placed under house arrest.
He was rehabilitated after the Cultural Revolution. In 1979, he was named honorary president of Peking University.