[1] He spent his early career in the Chengdu Military Region and the PLA General Political Department before transferring to the PLAAF.

[2] From 2005, Fan served in the Political Department of the Beijing Military Region Air Force and the Guangzhou Military Region Air Force.

[2] In the summer of 2014, he succeeded Lt. Gen. Yu Zhongfu as Political Commissar of the Jinan Military Region Air Force, and concurrently Deputy Political Commissar of the Jinan MR. A year later, he replaced Lt. Gen. Fang Jianguo [zh] as Director of the Political Department of the PLAAF, and was promoted to the rank of lieutenant general.

In April 2017, he was appointed Political Commissar of the Northern Theater Command, succeeding Gen. Chu Yimin to become the first military-region level political commander from the Air Force.

[1] In October 2017, he was elected as a member of the 19th Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party.