In 1987, Huang was named as a candidate for the Mayor of Shanghai, but received too few votes supporting his candidacy by the municipal People's Congress. Zhu Rongji was subsequently elected mayor instead. When Zhu ascended to Beijing to become governor of China's central bank, Huang became mayor of Shanghai in 1991 and then the city's party chief in 1994, serving until October 2002. In September 1994 he entered the Politburo of the Communist Party of China at the 4th Plenum of the 14th Central Committee.