Wu Hai, A senior executive at leading telecom equipment maker ZTE Corp. has fled amid an investigation into whether he bribed executives at China Unicom, sources with knowledge of the matter say.

Police are looking for Wu Hai, a senior vice president of ZTE and the new CEO of the company's device department. Wu is wanted by corruption investigators at the central government level on suspicions he bribed executives at China Unicom, one of the country's three main telecoms companies.

Wu disappeared in February, a source close to ZTE said.

The case is being handled by prosecutors with the Beijing city government, sources close to those prosecutors said. Police have issued an arrest warrant for the 44 year old.

This inquiry comes on the heels of a corruption scandal at China Unicom that was the result of a routine probe by a team from the central government. The probe looked into the activities of enterprises owned by the central government and started in December.

The scandal brought down two senior executives in China Unicom: Zhang Zhijiang, the former deputy general manager of the network unit, and Zong Xinhua, the former general manager of the information technology and e-commerce division.

Wu has worked at ZTE for 16 years. He was named head of the device department in May last year. Wu has long experience supervising ZTE's business with China Unicom, the source close to the telecoms equipment maker said.

The source also said the inquiry into Wu is likely linked with Zhang's case and may be due to Wu paying bribes to China Unicom to get more orders. That practice, the person said, is not rare in the industry.

Wu is suspected of paying bribes totaling nearly 1 million yuan to China Unicom's executives who were in charge of building a network in September and October 2012, the person said.

Zhang took the helm of China Unicom's network unit in 2012. The unit handles investments of tens of billions of yuan in network facilities every year.

"The network unit is in charge of project construction," a source close to China Unicom said. "It owns real power and is seen as a lucrative position."

On December 15, the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, the Communist Party's graft buster, said on its website that Zhang was being investigated for "serious discipline violations," a phrase it often uses instead of corruption. China Unicom removed Zhang from his position later that day.

Zhang's case was passed to the judicial system in late December. He faces charges of taking huge amounts of bribes and seeking personal gain through the position he held.

Central government investigators launched a one-month inspection of China Unicom late last year. The inspectors said in a report on February 4 that they found executives used their power to collude with contractors and suppliers to seek personal gain; conducted related-party transactions with relatives and others; and took bribes from suppliers.

The inspection team's inquiry extended to several of China Unicom's major suppliers, the source close to ZTE said. ZTE is the main supplier of China Unicom's third generation CDMA network.