Not really. Mei Ju has always been the Chinese name for Mercure, with Grand Mercure being translated as Haohua Meiju - meaning nothing more than "Luxury [selection of] Mercure [hotels]". A pretty stupid name. Now they are changing it and revamping it to suit Chinese travellers. Accor was strong 5-6 years ago but since then, competition here has caught up. I wonder if there are more than a handful of Grand Mercures in China right now.

I haven't heard of Hilton's programme, but consindering that they had a whopping three hotels 6 years ago and repeatedly missed the train here, I don't think anything substantial will come out of that.

Starwood is an interesting option in 2 or 3 years. They are expanding like mad and have an unbelievable amount of hotels in the pipeline. It's a good idea to allign these developments to suit the Chinese as well - not just Westerners.

However, until now, no other western hotel group has exclusively developed a brand for China and the local competition is nothing to speak of - right now.