Abstract: Carbon fiber reinforced plastics (CFRP) has been widely used as an important processing object for the preparation of aerospace vehicles and transportation tools. However, the cutting heat generated during the cutting process has a significant impact on their machining quality. Therefore, this paper expounds the research status of machining heat theory from three aspects: Cutting mechanism and chip formation mechanism of CFRP, formation mechanism of cutting heat and heat conduction and thermal coupling analysis. Then, taking the drilling as an example, the main measurement methods of cutting heat, common damage forms of CFRP in drilling and the influence of temperature on its processing damage are expounded, and then the application of several most widely used assisted machining processes, including Minimal Quantity Lubrication (MQL) assisted machining (The cutting temperature of CFRP can be reduced by about 40%), cooling assisted machining (The cutting temperature of CFRP can be reduced by about 55%. When processing CFRP / Ti6Al4V laminated workpieces, the cutting temperature can be reduced by 76.7% at most), vibration assisted machining (The cutting temperature of CFRP can be reduced by about 50%), in suppressing the cutting heat of drilling and Helical milling (The cutting temperature of CFRP can be reduced by more than 36% compared with traditional drilling) is discussed. Finally, the problems existing in the current cutting heat suppression strategy of CFRP hole-making and the focus of future research are summarized.