usually when they say no, you can't it means they don't want to bother. I have china telecom and back in 2009 when i signed up they required a passport then too. I'm pretty sure China mobile asked for my passport too back then.

My guess is that the police are enforcing the regulations and the clerk isn't sure about how to do it so they give the standard没办法. Just goto a main branch and ask for their boss.

We tried four places yesterday (China mobile) No SIM card without a Chinese ID card.

I guess it is an extension of the real name registration for the internet. But I wouldn't want to start any false rumours.

From recent experience from friends and tested myeself too, basically the only Unicom shop left which sells to foreigners with their passports is this one:
这里是：中国联通(护国路3G营业厅),护国路24号附近,详情：j.map.baidu.com/fwJGb

The ChinaMobil shop on JinMa Fang usually issue SIM's for forigners, I got a new one last week, no problem. You just need to bring your passport.

I'm just speculating - but I'm guessing they have to register the SIM card in a computer record and foreigner passports don't have the requisite number of digits (13-18?).

If conversational - you can tell them just add x leading zeros to get to the same number of digits in a Chinese ID card.

I seriously doubt the PSB would dictate which stores can issue SIM cards to foreigners - it's anti-competitive...and foreigners wouldn't know which store to go to (much less, how to get there). But...stranger things have happened (like recently photographed UFOs over Loch Ness).

It's NOT the official policy to not issue cards to foreigners. It seems to be a simple oversight in their computer system. The reason larger shops can do it and smaller shops can't probably has something to do with the operator's level of access in the system.

I've seen this happen with a lot of other systems over the years. They get a fancy upgrade that links up all their information, but the guy building the forms doesn't even realize that foreigners may want to use the system (or that we don't have shenfenzheng numbers).

For now, just go to the larger shops, and if you can, call customer service and complain. I wouldn't be surprised if the main office had no idea about this problem.

There was definitely a time where it didn't work in any store, even the big ones. Glad it's more or less resolved. Adding leading zeroes doesn't work - not only because there's probably a checksum in the id, but also because many passports (including the Belgian one) use letters of the alphabet for their passport number.