Let the clock be a clock: former Three-Body Universe CEO Xu Yao reportedly executed after deadly corporate poisoning

The verdict carried out

It has been reported that Xu Yao (许垚), the one-time CEO of Three-Body Universe (三体宇宙（上海）文化发展有限公司), was executed on May 21, 2026, following a high‑profile criminal case that began with a string of poisonings in late 2020. The news, confirmed by multiple sources between May 22 and 26, closes a four‑and‑a‑half‑year legal saga in Shanghai that culminated in a death sentence first handed down by the Shanghai No.1 Intermediate People’s Court in March 2024 and upheld by the Shanghai High People’s Court on appeal in November 2025. It has been reported that one of the poisoning victims posted on social media after the execution: “Justice, though late, has arrived.”

What the courts found

Shanghai courts determined that Xu planned and carried out multiple poisonings motivated by business disputes with Lin Qi (林奇), founder and then‑chairman of Youzu Network (游族网络). The court record, as reported, says Xu forged seals, rented a warehouse, impersonated medical and biotech entities, bought toxins online and used consumer products as delivery vehicles. Lin’s death was attributed to tetrodotoxin (河豚毒素) and alpha‑amanitin (α‑鹅膏毒肽) allegedly introduced into a probiotic product called “Peifekang” (培菲康). Several other people — including colleagues Zhao Yuyao and Zhao Jilong, Zhao’s wife, and a client surnamed Song — were poisoned with methylmercury chloride (氯化甲基汞) added to items such as single‑serve coffee capsules, whisky and bottled water, the court found.

Timeline and professional background

Xu, born in March 1981 in Guiyang, studied civil and commercial law at Southwest University of Political Science and Law and reportedly earned master’s degrees from Paul Cézanne University (France) and the University of Michigan (USA). He worked at a U.S. law firm and the Fosun group before joining Youzu in 2017 and becoming CEO of Three‑Body Universe in 2018 to manage and develop the popular Three‑Body IP. Lin, also born in 1981, founded Youzu in 2009 and led the company through a 2014 A‑share listing that made it one of China’s prominent game companies; courts say the two men shared office space in Youzu’s Shanghai headquarters.

Broader context

The case has been exceptional for its brutality and corporate setting, and it underscores how high‑stakes disputes within China’s fast‑maturing entertainment and tech sectors can become matters of national legal consequence. China’s justice system applies capital punishment in the most serious criminal cases; here, the high court emphasized premeditation, cruelty and lack of remorse when upholding the death sentence. For Western readers less familiar with the landscape: this incident sits against a backdrop of tighter regulatory scrutiny and stronger state oversight of China’s tech and cultural industries since the late 2010s, and it has attracted international attention as a rare—and extreme—instance of corporate violence.