The origin of China Rescue and Salvage are in a series of local institutions based in Shanghai. In 1951, with the approval of the
Central People's Government, the
Central Ministry of Communications decided to merge the Maritime (Salvage) Department of the State-owned Maritime Transport Bureau with the nationalized Huaxing Salvage Company. On 24 August 1951, a new state-owned enterprise, the '''Chinese People's Salvage Company''' was established in
Shanghai, responsible for navigation and salvage at the
Huangpu River and
Yangtze River estuaries. The company had to deal with 59 shipwrecks at the bottom of the Huangpu River that had sunk from the end of 1948 to the beginning of 1949 (during the
Chinese Civil War), and with hundreds of shipwrecks in the Yangtze River estuary channel, by sealing holed hulls and pumping water, mud removal,
barge lifting, shipwreck removal, and channel dredging. The company had 120 employees, including 6 members of the
Chinese Communist Party. In four years, the company managed to remove 104 wrecks of around 100,000 tons total
displacement, mostly from the Huangpu and
Yangtze delta. From 12 February 1953, the Chinese People's Salvage Company used the name "Salvage Company of the General Administration of Navigation Engineering".
Zhang Zhikui served as the manager from August 1953 until January 1966. From 1 January 1956, the company's name changed to "Salvage Engineering Bureau of the General Administration of Navigation Engineering", still with the nature of a business institution. On 1 July 1958, it was renamed Shanghai Salvage Engineering Bureau. On 23 July 1958, the then Minister of Transportation
Wang Shoudao ordered the merging of maritime rescue with salvage operations. From 16 September 1958, shipwrecks in the coastal waters of China from
Wenzhou to the mouth of the
Yalu River were placed under the responsibility of the Shanghai Salvage Engineering Bureau, making the SSEB into the first national-level combined rescue and salvage organization. The SSEB first set up three rescue stations at
Yantai, Shanghai, and
Wenzhou. On 15 February 1963, the Shanghai Salvage Engineering Bureau was renamed the Shanghai Maritime Rescue and Salvage Bureau. In December 1963, the Ministry of Communications set up the Yantai Rescue Station and the Tianjin Rescue Station as detached units. By the first half of 1964, five rescue stations had been built in
Tianjin, Yantai, Shanghai, Wenzhou, and
Xiamen. outside of
Fujian province during
Typhoon Nora without effective response by the Chinese authorities of the port of Xiamen, which made
Zhou Enlai complain about the "cowardice" of the slow reaction. This extremely sharp rebuke (in the middle of the
Cultural Revolution, when such rebukes tended to have dangerous outcomes) caused a drive to strengthen coastal rescue networks across the country. As a reaction, in 1973 the
State Council and the
Central Military Commission jointly issued a document to establish the National Maritime Security Command. In 1974, a national maritime search and rescue work conference was held in
Qingdao. The meeting decided that the Ministry of Transport would establish two new maritime security headquarters in
Yantai and
Guangzhou. The Guangzhou Maritime Rescue and Salvage Bureau (the former Third Engineering Team of China People's Salvage Company) was created that same year, and on 28 September 1974, the Yantai Shipwreck Rescue and Salvage Bureau of the Ministry of Transport was officially established. On 30 April 1975, the
Tianjin and Yantai rescue stations were formally transferred to the Yantai Salvage Bureau, and 308 employees, 3 tugboats, 3 salvage barges, 20 salvage
buoys, and total assets of 130,000 yuan were transferred with them. The three new Salvage Bureaus started building 9 rescue stations, built rescue docks, radio stations, and recruited
People's Liberation Army Navy veterans to expand their force.
Soon after, with the start of the
reform and opening, the bureaus were also progressively allowed to operate commercially, the Shanghai bureau under the name "Shanghai Tug Company". With the rapid growth of marine traffic as China foreign trade grew, the opportunities for profitable activities became common, and as the Bureaus were allowed to retain earnings for reinvestment, they grew steadily in equipment and capabilities. The CSR in its various incarnations has, in the period between 24 August 1951 to 23 August 2021, rescued a total of 82,783 people (12,703 foreigners) and 5,424 ships in distress (957 foreign ships) in harsh sea conditions and other emergency and dangerous environments, and salvaged 1,827 sunken ships (99 foreign ships). the Shanghai bureaus; and the Yantai bureaus have carried out 512 salvage missions, rescued 3,163 people, salvaged 183 sunken ships, and recovered 5,000 tons of spilled oil. ==Functions==