Fu began his career as an officer in Yen Hsi-shan's Shanxi army. He served with distinction during the Northern Expedition, after Yen had declared his allegiance to the Kuomintang, but later participated in the failed coup against Chiang Kai-shek (1929-1930).
In the early 1930s, he began a close relationship with Chang Hsüeh-liang and became governor of Suiyuan Province. During WWII, he held numerous commands in North China and resisted Japanese incursions from Manchukuo and Mongolia.
During the Chinese Civil War, Fu's forces (500,000 men) controlled the critically important Suiyuan-Peiping Corridor that separated Manchuria from China proper. After the Communists captured the Manchurian provinces in late 1948, Fu began secret negotiations with Lin Biao, in which he arranged the surrender of the Beiping garrison on January 31, 1949.
Fu’s contributions to the Communist Party of China's success were rewarded with high posts in the People's Republic of China government.