Huang was born in 1895 in
Rong County, Guangxi. After the
1911 Revolution he attended the Guangxi Military Cadre Training School in
Guilin along with
Bai Chongxi and
Li Zongren. Later he rose to command the Model Battalion, a modern professional military formation equipped with machine guns. In the confused power struggles following the
Guangdong-Guangxi War, local military figures began to carve out territory in Guangxi and dominate it. In the southwest were the opium trails from both
Yunnan and
Guizhou that ran through
Baise and then down the river to
Nanning, from whence opium usually went out through
Wuzhou, where the trade was financed. During the Guangdong–Guangxi Wars Huang, then the commander of the Model Battalion, attempted to stay neutral and relocated to Baise in the far northwest. By stages he came to control Baise, and with it the opium trade. Later he expanded his control to Wuzhou, thus locking up the portals through which opium both entered and left Guangxi. By the spring of 1924 the new Guangxi Clique had formed and created the Guangxi Pacification Army.
Li Zongren was the Commander-in-Chief, Huang the deputy Commander and
Bai Chongxi the Chief of Staff. By August they had defeated and driven former ruler
Lu Rongting and other contenders out of the province and Huang became the civil governor of Guangxi from 1924-29. He was also interior and transportation minister in the National Government of
Chiang Kai-shek after 1927. During the
Kumul Rebellion Chiang Kai-shek was ready to send Huang and his expeditionary force, which he assembled to assist Muslim Gen. Ma Zhongying against
Sheng Shicai, but when Chiang heard about the
Soviet Invasion of Xinjiang, he decided to withdraw to avoid an international incident if his troops directly engaged the Soviets, leaving Ma alone without reinforcements to fight the Red Army. Huang became chairman of the government of
Zhejiang from 1934–35 and
Hubei from 1936-37. Again from 1937-46 he became chairman of the government of
Zhejiang and commander of the 15th Army of the
National Revolutionary Army. During
World War II he was named deputy commander-in-chief of the 2nd War Zone. After the war he was named head of the Supervisory Committee and elected member of the
Legislative Yuan (parliament). During the
Chinese Civil War peace talks in March 1949, he was one of the Kuomintang delegates. He and
Zhang Zhizhong agreed to accept the cease-fire conditions submitted by the
Communist Party. When the Kuomintang leadership turned them down later, Huang fled to
British Hong Kong and declared his defection from the Kuomintang and joined the
Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) in September 1949. After the founding of the People's Republic, Huang was elected a member of the
State Council,
National People's Congress, and CPPCC. He was also a member of the Standing Committee of the Revolutionary Committee of the Chinese Kuomintang. During the
Anti-Rightist Movement, Huang was labeled a rightist. Later, during the
Cultural Revolution, he was again determined to be a "rightist." Unable to stand the persecution of the
Red Guards, he committed suicide at home on August 31, 1966, in Beijing. == References ==