A former gaming company executive has been executed in China for murdering his billionaire associate.

Xu Yao poisoned Yoozoo Game founder Lin Qi’s food in December 2020 following a dispute over being sidelined despite helping the tycoon land a Netflix deal.

Xu was detained after Lin, 39, died on Christmas Day. He was sentenced to death in 2024 after being convicted of Lin’s murder.

Yoozoo owns the film rights to The Three-Body Problem, a bestselling Chinese science-fiction trilogy. Xu headed up a subsidiary in charge of business related to the trilogy, according to local news reports.

In September 2020, Netflix acquired the rights to produce an adaptation of novelist Liu Cixin’s trilogy, Chinese state media reported at the time.

Lin was named an executive producer on the Netflix project alongside Game of Thrones creators David Benioff and DB Weiss.

Lin appointed Xu to lead the Three-Body Universe in 2018, but they fell out two years later when the tycoon decided to put other executives in charge of business operations.

"We deeply mourn Mr Lin and extend our heartfelt condolences to his family," Yoozoo said in a statement, confirming that Xu was executed on 21 May.

"As colleagues who fought alongside him, all members of the company are grateful for the impartiality of the judicial process," the company said, according to the BBC.

The Three-Body Problem series, released in 2024 on Netflix, follows a group of scientists as humanity faces an alien invasion.

In present-day Britain, a group of physicists nicknamed “The Oxford Five” seek to understand why scientific experiments around the world are failing.

They get a helping hand from unconventional detective Da Shi, played by Benedict Wong, an operative of a secret intelligence agency.

The eight-episode series features an ensemble cast that includes Eiza Gonzalez, Jovan Adepo, Jess Hong, and Jonathan Pryce, while Brad Pitt, Rosamund Pike and Rian Johnson are among the show’s executive producers.