Huang was imprisoned by the government from June 2000 to June 2005 and again arrested in July 2008 for "illegal possession of state secrets" after he helped the victims of the Sichuan earthquake. In November 2009 he was sentenced to three years of imprisonment. He was subsequently described as a political prisoner; Amnesty International described him as a victim of vague state secrets laws. Huang was sentenced to twelve years in prison in July 2019 for leaking state secrets to foreigners.