ICBC is probably one of the least expat friendly banks in terms of credit card products. If you are not here on a work permit / residence permit, it is all but impossible.
What you can do is get a secured credit card from them. They don’t do this as much as they used to, but you can find a friendly branch and tell them you can deposit an amount equal to your target credit limit in a long term deposit as guaranty. They should accept and issue you a credit card.
They will report the history of this card to the People’s Bank of China credit reporting agency and after a while you will have — hopefully — a good credit record. You can then ask ICBC to return the security deposit to you thus making your card a normal (i.e. non-secured) credit card.
