Chinese Google engineer faces murder trial

A 27-year-old Chinese Google worker has been charged with murder after he allegedly beat his wife to death this week in Santa Clara, United States.

Chen Liren allegedly repeatedly punched his wife, Yu Xuanyi in the head at their home. She was found on the floor with severe blunt-force injuries, and the bedroom was covered in blood, when police arrived on January 16 at 10:55 am, according to San Francisco Standard, a local news portal.

Chen and Yu both graduated from Tsinghua University and the University of California San Diego with the same major and were employed by Google as software engineers, according to their LinkedIn profiles.

Chen was found on his knees, with blood on his arms, legs and clothing, after police received a call from a friend of the couple.

Prosecutors filed murder charges against Chen, but the hearing date has been postponed as Chen is in the hospital. He faces a life sentence without parole if convicted.

"We will be returning to court each day until Mr Chen is released from the hospital and able to be personally present for his arraignment," the Santa Clara County District Attorney's Office said.

The case has caused great shock and reaction on Chinese social media.

Two national Chinese newspapers, World Journal and Sing Tao, published false claims of a murder-suicide on front pages on January 19. An unverified rumour stating the case was related to recent Google's layoffs was denied by the couple's colleague in the Yangtse Evening Post.

The death occurred in their house at 714 Valley Way, which was bought by Yu Xuanyi for approximately 14 million yuan (US$2 million) in April 2023.