BEIJING--China appointed a new head to its antitrust regulatory arm amid increased use of the nation's antimonopoly law.

Zhang Handong was listed as the head of the price-supervision and antimonopoly bureau under the National Development and Reform Commission, succeeding Xu Kunlin, who led investigations in Qualcomm Inc.'s (QCOM) monopoly case.

The appointment was published on the website of the NDRC, the state planning agency, on Tuesday. It didn't say when the appointment took effect.

Mr. Xu was named in October as the head of the NDRC's pricing department, which is in charge of domestic price-setting, as well as the head of the antimonopoly bureau. He was still listed as the head of the antimonopoly bureau in a statement on the NDRC's website on Saturday.

Under Mr. Xu's direction, China's antitrust regulator launched an antitrust investigation into U.S. chip maker Qualcomm, which was fined $975 million in February for violations of China's antimonopoly law.

Write to Grace Zhu at grace.zhu@dowjones.com

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