The Thrusting force is the main control parameter in the shield launching and receiving. In this paper, the rules of retaining pile stressing and ground surface settlement under different thrusting forces on the cutterhead during shield launching and receiving are studied by means of finite difference FLAC3D software, with the glassfiber reinforced plastic (GFRP) pile cut directly by a 6 m shield machine used in Line No. 15 of Beijing Metro as an example. The study results show that: 1) Settlement would occur to the ground surface when the thrusting force of shield launching is larger than 10 000 kN. 2) The GFRP pile would fall towards the free side when the thrusting force of shield receiving is larger than 8 000 kN. The results can provide guidance for the design of GFPR pile and the safe construction of shield tunneling.