The rights to manage this railway line was one of the main concessions that Japan acquired from Russia after the Russo-Japanese War.

It played an important role in Japan's control of Manchuria, as a key connection in traffic between east Asia and Europe and as a means of conveying resources mined inland to the coast.

[1] In August 1945, after Japan's defeat in the Pacific War, control of this and all other Mantetsu lines was passed to the Sino-Soviet China Changchun Railway.

The line was operated by the Imperial Japanese Army until it was taken over by the South Manchuria Railway Company (Mantetsu), established on 26 November 1906.

Using the Mukden Incident as a pretext to invade Manchuria, Japan created the puppet state of Manchukuo in March 1932;[4] Changchun was designated the capital city, and was renamed Xinjing (Shinkyō), and the line was renamed once again, becoming the Renkyō Line at that time.

The Manchukuo National Railway, which had taken over the remainder of the Chinese Eastern Railway, finished the conversion of the Jingbin Line from Xinjing to Harbin from broad gauge to standard gauge on 31 August 1935, and from 1 September the Asia Express service was extended to Harbin.

Between 1 August and 3 November 1944, the second track of the 180.3 km (112.0 mi) section between Sanshilibao (Sanjūrihō) and Dashiqiao (Daisekikyō) was removed, with the railways being used to upgrade Mantetsu's Anpō Line and the Manchukuo National Railway's Fengshan Line from Fengtian to Shanhaiguan.