Even if OP's hubbie can't marry his tickets, getting the CO person to tag the bags to Fuzhou would likely do the trick. Short of that, I believe there are regulations in place that enforce the "longest sector" rule wrt to baggage limits for connections inside of 24 hours. Earlier this year, I booked an award ticket for a friend PVG-SFO and tacked on a revenue ticket SFO-JFK on AA; AA didn't charge him a penny for his 140 pounds of checked baggage (UA's biz class allowance).

ETA: I agree that the baggage issue is a cool excuse to justify F (necessary or not).