During this period, the National People’s Congress, the only organ that had legislative power, did not make a single law except for passing the Constitution of 1975. Very few regulations and decisions came out from the Standing Committee of the NPC either, which had the right to work out decrees and specific regulations. As for the localities, except for ethnic autonomous regions, others had no legislative power at all. In this period, central and local legislative activities went from comparatively active to sluggish and stagnation until almost dying out. At that time, only the State Council and its affiliated ministries and commissions continued to make regulatory documents, though it had never been defined in the Constitution or the Law that the State Council had that kind of legislative power. Despite the fact that their regulatory documents were taken as law, they did not belong to the category of law either legally or theoretically. Therefore, their publication could not be considered as the practice of legislation.

The activities of the National People’s Congress were abnormal too. During the 10 years from February 1965 to December 1974, in particular, it held not a single meeting. There were altogether only 100 plus clerks on the payroll of the Standing Committee of the NPC after 1959.

Referring to the theory, system and technique of legislation, compared with that of the previous period, there was no progress but simply retrogression instead.