Can ICBC remit money internationally?

As in, send money from an ICBC account in China to some other bank account at a foreign bank in a foreign country? Their website says they can do cross-border outward remittance, but a small branch near me says they have no such program. So, I guess the question is, has anyone done it before, sent money from ICBC to a real bank in a real country?

God (a Chinese speaker) only knows what this says:

http://m.icbc.com.cn/ICBC/%E4%B8%9A%E5%8A%A1%E6%8C%87%E5%8D%97/%E4%B8%AA%E4%BA%BA%E9%87%91%E8%9E%8D/%E8%B7%A8%E5%A2%83%E9%87%91%E8%9E%8D/%E5%B7%A5%E9%93%B6%E6%B1%87%E5%85%91/%E8%B7%A8%E5%A2%83%E6%B1%87%E5%87%BA%E6%B1%87%E6%AC%BE.htm

Or why I can only get it as a mobile phone link, but it is (five-year-old information) on the topic of 跨境汇出汇款, or Cross-border Outward Remittance. Anyone care to peruse and summarize why all hope is lost?

Also:

ICBC: "跨境汇出汇款"

We use the bank of communications for savings and the odd time we send money to Canada.
We can't send money from our branch and gave to go to a larger one.
Maybe that's the case with you.

Do you use the same account at the larger branch or do you have to screw around with transfers and fees because the larger branch is not the originating branch?

I've done wire transfers from ICBC to my banks in the US. Did it successfully from several different branches. Don't have copies of the paperwork anywhere or I'd scan it and upload it so you know what to look for.

I have done it with ICBC, Communications and the Construction bank. You always have to go to a larger branch, sometimes a small branch may offer western union but that is unrelated and normally only for US dollars making it useless for anyone else.

Sticking to the same bank helps with fees.

Any limits on the size of the remittance? In the foreign affairs office here they keep imagining a per-transaction limit of 50,000 yuan on either the necessary foreign exchange or the actual transfer.

I use Merchant's bank and do the transfers online, no need to actually go to the bank. I have transferred to my own account in America (Bank of America) and my dad's account in America, which is a local credit union.

As far as I'm aware the limit is $50,000 dollars per year, not RMB (but I can't remember now if there's a different rule for foreigners, the limit may be lower for us, but for Chinese folk it is definitely $50k). We purchased a house in America last year and I simply got four different people to do the transfers for me. Easier I guess if you have Chinese family members, but if you have a trustworthy Chinese friend that will work too.

Presently I'm stuck with ICBC since the school prefers them for salary deposits. But I hadn't even thought of managing this stuff online. I'll go and see them on Monday and see how it works out. If I could do a one time old skool actual real person face-to-face visit and then handle the rest online, that'd be great.

The worrisome thing though about online banking is I can load up http://icbc.com.cn/ICBC/sy/ just fine, but the "secure" version https://icbc.com.cn/ gets a "Privacy Error", which is to say China's assault on https undermines even the damn bank's minimal browser security stuff. I don't know what difference that makes but it seems like something.

But on an actual banking note: as foreigners, we need to account for the origin of the money, don't we? We need to be able to show contracts and tax documents? The dodge of doing the transaction in someone else's name is fine, but sending the money to their account is an extra fee and I don't presently know how much extra that adds to the whole cost.

Also, I'm at least theoretically concerned about relying on Chinese friends. Or for example, winding up with all the foreign affairs staff having all those transactions in their accounts. The Fox Hunt stuff going on presently and the concerns in the Party and elsewhere with capital flight... at some point China's tax and policing infrastructure is going to be an actual thing.

I use ICBC's online banking (though I've never tried an online overseas transfer). It's English website is https://mybank1.icbc.com.cn/icbc/enperbank/index.jsp

Note: If you're not using Mac, you can only access it's login through IE Explorer (and it'll prompt you to download some ActiveX controls). Chrome and Firefox won't work.

If you're using a Mac, they have a plug-in so you can use Safari.

You may have to visit their branch to "open" Internet banking and also get a USB key which the site will require for a Windows machine. I have mine set up so that when I need to do a transaction,it sends a passcode to my mobile phone which I input in the transaction screen. If you call their 95588 number they  have pretty good English service (I trained some of them). They might be able to answer some of your questions and direct you to where you need to go and what you need to do.

Do you use the same account at the larger branch or do you have to screw around with transfers and fees because the larger branch is not the originating branch?

Ya we used the same account and because she's had her account for about twenty years we pay the actual exchange rate with only about fifty yuan tacked on as a nominal service fee. When sending about 90000 rmb last time that saved us a lot. 

I use ICBC's online banking (though I've never tried an online overseas transfer). It's English website is https://mybank1.icbc.com.cn/icbc/enperbank/index.jsp

Note: If you're not using Mac, you can only access it's login through IE Explorer (and it'll prompt you to download some ActiveX controls). Chrome and Firefox won't work.

I tried that link with Chrome (on Win 7) just to see what would happen. It said:

Sorry, your current version of Chrome cannot access ICBC Internet Banking. Download official version of Chrome (version 21.0-24.9) if you wish to use ICBC Internet Banking.

Chrome, meanwhile, is well past version 21. I'm using 41.0.2272.89 m...

But it occurs to me that I went through the whole e-commerce nightmare about two years ago. I wanted back then to use my ICBC card to buy plane tickets. Thus I think possibly I am already set up for online banking. At the back of some drawer there'll be a slip of paper with a password. I shall investigate further. Thanks for the link.