Law360, New York (March 17, 2015, 3:14 PM EDT) -- Chinese New Year celebrations culminated in a big way for foreign multinationals in China with the news at the end of February that the head of the National Development and Reform Commission's Antitrust Bureau had been removed. Xu Kunlin had made his name by initiating numerous investigations against sectors involving multinationals such as auto parts and bearings, cars and contact lenses. Former Director Xu (who is still director of the NDRC's Price Department) was widely regarded as a fine leader, and his Antitrust Bureau hit monopolies with hefty penalties of $1.29 billion from 2014 through Feb. 10, the date the Qualcomm Inc. decision was announced as discussed below. He has been replaced by Zhang Handong (former deputy director of the Healthcare Reform Office under the State Council), whom we presume will take time to settle into his new position. Based on his familiarity with the medical sector, we would caution clients in that sector to continue to pay close attention to antitrust compliance....