Who Made Whom: Li Yuanxiang with Over 100 Million Annual Salary and AIA's Polarized Situation?

Author: Zhang Linlin Editor: Zhang Zheng

On March 19, AIA Group announced its full-year 2025 performance report.

AIA’s 2025 results showed a strong overall performance, with new business value increasing by 15%. The Hong Kong market contributed a high growth rate of 28%, while mainland China saw only a slight increase of 2%.

This performance report highlights several key figures for this Asia-Pacific insurance giant reaching new heights.

While the overall new business value grew by 15%, performance across regions showed significant disparities.

Hong Kong’s market, with a 28% surge, supported the company’s overall performance.

Meanwhile, the much-anticipated mainland China market only achieved a modest 2% growth.

In this highly polarized financial report, Group CEO Li Yuanxiang’s personal compensation drew particular attention.

Behind the High Salary

In 2025, Li Yuanxiang received a total annual salary of $14.77 million.

Converted at current exchange rates, this amounts to approximately 106 million RMB.

Compared to the previous year, his salary increased by 7.6%.

The financial report shows that AIA’s operating profit grew by 7% this period.

The salary increases for executives closely mirrored the company’s profit growth.

When compared to the entire domestic insurance industry, this high level of pay creates a strong impact.

Among listed insurance companies in China’s A-share market, the co-CEO of Ping An Insurance Group, Guo Xiaotao, earned about 13.42 million RMB in 2024.

Li Yuanxiang’s annual salary is nearly eight times that amount.

The top five highest-paid executives at AIA Group received a total compensation of $32,562,653 in 2025.

This sum is roughly 224 million RMB.

The total executive team compensation remained almost unchanged from the previous year.

With a fixed total budget, nearly half of the total went to Li Yuanxiang alone.

Changing Investment Logic

This rare level of compensation is directly linked to his early career background and a sensational talent poaching incident that shook the insurance industry.

Before joining AIA, Li Yuanxiang worked at Ping An Insurance for 16 years.

He rose from being the special assistant to the chairman of Ping An Life to become Co-CEO and Chief Insurance Business Officer of the group.

During his efforts to expand Ping An Life’s business, he gained extensive experience in mainland China’s market operations.

In 2020, AIA made significant financial sacrifices to facilitate this personnel change.

Besides offering an extraordinarily high annual salary, AIA paid him approximately $28.15 million in a “sky-high transfer fee.”

This costly recruitment drew long-lasting industry attention.

Looking at his salary changes since joining, Li Yuanxiang’s income has remained high and steadily increased over time.

In 2022, his salary was $14 million.

In 2023, it slightly decreased to $13.42 million.

In 2024, it rose again to $13.73 million.

In 2025, it surged to $14.77 million.

AIA’s willingness to continue paying such a high annual salary, exceeding hundreds of millions, mainly aims to leverage his deep industry connections in mainland China to unlock larger market potential.

From current results, the explosive growth in Hong Kong somewhat masks the sluggish mainland market.

The mere 2% growth in mainland China clearly cannot justify the “sky-high transfer fee” as an absolute value-for-money investment.

Many investment institutions remain optimistic about AIA’s long-term prospects, believing that once the mainland market recovers, it will become the company’s most important new growth engine.

The current slight increase still reveals substantial obstacles faced by the company in expanding its business in mainland China.

Macroeconomic conditions and the cyclical nature of the insurance industry have made expansion less straightforward than in the past.

AIA’s strategy of locking in core executives with high salaries can indeed stabilize morale and maintain its industry position.

For an insurance giant that urgently needs breakthroughs in mainland China, relying solely on Hong Kong to stabilize the core business is far from sufficient.

In the face of increasingly complex market conditions, the cost of recruiting top talent is crucial.

How these highly paid managers break through growth bottlenecks in the most critical mainland market is the real core issue worth reflection.

After all, beyond just paying sky-high salaries to attract talent, when this huge investment will generate equivalent returns is equally important.