Huang Yongsheng participated in the Autumn Harvest Uprising of 1927, and in December of the same year joined the Chinese Communist Party.

During the war against Japan, he was appointed a regimental commander in the 115th Division of the Eighth Route Army.

[2][3] It was reported much later that during the pro-communist riots in Hong Kong in 1967, he suggested invading and occupying the British colony; his plan, however, was vetoed by Zhou Enlai.

In the summer of 1971, immediately preceding Lin's death, Huang issued a strongly-worded statement condemning Zhou Enlai's plan to seek a closer relationship with the United States.

[6] Huang's involvement in the plot to assassinate Mao Zedong was implied (though not directly stated) by the confession of Li Weixin (the only one of Lin's plotters to have survived 1971).