A number of checks and balances present in the 1954 Constitution, including term limits for party leaders, elections and more independence in the judiciary, were restored.

However, the required support for the leadership of the Chinese Communist Party and the socialist system remained as part of citizens' duties.

Although short-lived, the 1978 Constitution witnessed the first time since the 1950s that the document was considered authoritative enough for its provisions to remain within the Communist Party's attention.

Previously, during the Tienanmen Square Incident in 1976 when this same right had been invoked to criticize the Cultural Revolution, protests were forcibly suppressed without the relevant constitutional provisions being acknowledged in any way by the authorities.

It also mandated in the preamble part that China must "be constructed into a great, powerful, modern socialist country in agriculture, industry, national defense, science and technology within the century".