Overlooked that there is a thread for DCC in specifically China. Maybe I could provide some insights here as I am currently in Beijing and experimenting my different Chase cards and Discover on different banks POS machines.

If you mean "forced" forced, I think in China, NO. However, if you go to a small store and they DCC you, it is really not worth the hassle to get it right, as the amount is small and they don't know what DCC is (a lot of the times, DCC is set by the owner or the bank, and the employees have no idea of it, or are afraid of going beyond what is told to do).

If you go to a hotel and put hundreds of dollars on your card, just let them turn off DCC. If they fail, ask them to cancel and re-do. For 建行 and 中行 machines, just press the red cancel button after entering amount and clicking enter (this works in all 30 hotels I've tried in Beijing, Shanghai, Shijiazhuang). If you find a 工行 machine, just swipe your Visa or MasterCard, as all the 工行 ones I've run into in Beijing don't have DCC turned on by default.

Never seen a machine that is unbeatable in China. Maybe there is, but the chain hotel ones are controllable. They are becoming aware of the hostility from big foreign customers like Morgan Stanley who use business credit cards. Actually, the chain hotels I've been to all will willingly turn DCC of for you, and banks do annoy them by pushing them to cheat the customers, but apparently hotels are on the customers' side once they know you know the deal.