The highest-paid and best-performing CEOs in China

Yang Yuan Qing, the CEO of Lenovo, was crowned China's highest-paid CEO, while Liu Cheng Yan, chairman and CEO of ChinaNetCenter was named the best CEO, judged by company performance.

This was in a ranking released by Forbes yesterday about CEOs of listed companies in mainland China.

The study looked at the performance of companies for the past three years to produce the ranking for the 50 Best CEOs in China.

In the second half of 2014, Liu was able to ride on the expansion of 4G network to lead the company to new heights, making ChinaNetCenter the country's leading internet service provider, and moving Liu into the top spot from being the first runner-up last year.

Although male leaders dominate the top 50 list, eight women entered the list this year compared to six last year.  First to appear in the top-earners' list was He Qiu, general manager of Shanghai RAAS, a biotech firm, ranked at number 14.

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Among the 50 companies, 44 are listed on the exchange in either Shanghai or Shenzhen, 4 in Hong Kong and 2 in New York.

Among CEOs of listed companies in mainland China for both A-share and H-share companies, Yang was the top earner, with an annual salary of RMB 120 million.

CEO of Ping An Insurance Company of China, Ma Ming Zhe led A-share listed CEOs with earnings of RMB 10.9 million.

The study showed that in 2014, more than 352 CEOs from A-share companies had an annual income of more than one million RMB, 11 less than the year before.

Among CEOs of H-share companies, 334 earned more than one million RMB in 2014, 107 more than in 2013.

The average salary of A-share CEOs was around two million RMB compared to 5 million RMB among H-share CEOs.

The 10 highest-paid CEOs, according to their annual income, are:

1. Yang Yuan Qing, CEO of Lenovo, RMB 118 million
2. Xia Hai Jun, CEO of Evergrande Real Estate Group, RMB 72.54 million
3. Tsai Eng Meng, chairman of Want Want China, RMB 41.35 million
4. Leung Moon Lam, CEO of China South City Holdings, RMB 39.39 million
5. Wang Feng, CEO of Blue Harbour Interactive, RMB 37.12 million
6. William Chan, CEO of Rykadan Capital, RMB 33.14 million
7. Li Zhen Jiang, CEO of Shineway Pharmaceutical Group, RMB 32.03 million
8. Shao Mingxiao, CEO of Longfor Properties, RMB 29.79 million
9. Ma Ma Hua Teng, chairman of Tencent, RMB 27.55 million
10. Cai Dong Chen Cai, CEO of CSPC Pharmaceutical Group, RMB 26.19 million

The 10 best-performing CEOs, according to the business performance, are:

1. Liu Cheng Yan, chairman and CEO of ChinaNetCenter
2. Ao Xiao Qiang, CEO of Beijing SDL Technology Company
3. Liu Xiang Hua, CEO of Qian Shan Medicine Machine
4. Li Zhongchu, CEO of Beijing Shiji Information
5. Han Gang, director of Jetsen Technology
6. Yang Hong Bing, CEO of Harbin Gloria Pharmaceuticals
7. Zhang Yan, general manager of Himile Group
8. Jia Yuet Ting, CEO of LETV
9. Lei Bo, CEO of East Software
10. Chen Hai Bin, CEO of Zhejiang DIAN Diagnostics

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