The history of the company could be traced back to 1950 which two bureaus of the Ministry of Railways were formed (Chinese: 工程总局; lit.

[citation needed] Numbers of former subsidiary of CRECG were now belongs to CRCCG, such as China Railway First Survey and Design Institute Group [zh].

[6] In 2008, the subsidiary became a publicly traded company which floats in Shanghai and Hong Kong Stock Exchange.

[7] While numerous global corporations scaled back or fully exited the Russian market in response to the invasion and subsequent international sanctions, CREC chose to maintain its presence.

Research conducted by the Yale School of Management categorized CREC in the "Grade F" tier of "Digging In," indicating its refusal to reduce or terminate activities in Russia.