developed a nomenklatura system modeled on the Soviet Union; there was no civil service independent of the ruling party. Reform Following the death of Mao Zedong and the rise of reformist Deng Xiaoping, efforts began to change the cadre system after the discord of the Cultural Revolution so that the Party would be able to effectively carry out the modernization of China. Reforms beginning in 1984 did not decrease the approximately 8.1 million cadre positions across China, but began to decentralize their management to authorities at provincial and local levels. Zhao Ziyang, elected General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party in 1987, sought to transform the cadre system into a more independent body resembling a civil service. The civil service not completely subservient to the CCP, and thus reform the relationship between the Party and the Chinese state. In the aftermath of the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests, Zhao and his allies lost their influence among Party elite and the civil service reform project was denounced by remaining leaders. Zhao's proposals were subsequently heavily modified and implemented as the "Provisional Regulations on State Civil Servants" in 1993, albeit on a much less comprehensive scale. Nevertheless, the Provisional Regulations established the first formal civil service in China since the founding of the People's Republic. Definition The definition of civil servant (), a term formally codified in the 2006 Civil Service Law is often ambiguous in China. Most broadly, civil servants in China are a subset of CCP cadres, the class of professional staff who administer and manage Chinese government, party, military, and major business institutions. More specifically, the term denotes public employees in higher positions of authority; according to Yuenyuen Ang, they "form the elite strata of functionaries in the party-state hierarchy", in contrast to shiye renyuan (事业人员) or 'shiye' personnel, who are also public employees but are not considered gongwuyuan. The definition of the civil service differs from that of many western countries. Civil servants are "the managers, administrators and professionals who work for government bodies," including leadership such as the Premier, state councillors, ministers, and provincial governors, among others. It excludes manual workers and many other types of cadre, such as those employed in public service units such as hospitals, universities, or state-owned enterprises, even though those positions are also paid and managed by the government. While not strictly part of the civil service, the judiciary is governed by the