A series of novel N-arylmethyl substituted piperidine-linked aniline derivatives were designed, synthesized and evaluated for their anti-HIV activity in MT-4 cells. All the new compounds showed moderate to potent activities against wild-type (wt) HIV-1 with an EC50 range from 0.022 to 2.1μM. Among them, compound 5a6 (EC50=0.022±0.0091μM, SI >10,770) was confirmed to be the most potent and selective inhibitor, which proved more potent than DDI and DLV in a cell-based assay against wt HIV-1, and more efficient than NVP in an RT (reverse transcriptase) assay. Besides, it is worth noting that compound 7a1 retained moderate inhibitory activity (EC50=4.8±0.95μM) against the HIV-1 double RT mutant strain (K103N/Y181C). The preliminary structure-activity relationship was discussed and rationalized by molecular simulation.