The head of an urban management brigade in Guangzhou, South China's Guangdong Province, told his bribery trial that he had to accept money so as to not offend the "powerful" middlemen, the Guangzhou Daily reported Monday.

Wang Baolin, 49, former head of the urban management brigade of Taihe township in the city's Baiyun district, is charged of taking 4.32 million yuan ($692,919) in bribes and 500 grams of gold products from people who built illegal buildings.

Wang went to work as an urban management officer, or chengguan, after he was discharged from the army in 2005 and was promoted to head in 2009.

The chengguan officer was suspended from his position and received an administrative demerit in accordance to the related rules late last year. Wang then turned himself in to the local prosecutor's office.

Wang's bank account had ballooned to 20.71 million yuan by 2011, 9.5 million yuan of which he proved came from legal sources. He is charged with accepting 4.32 million yuan in bribes but some 6.89 million yuan remained unexplained.

"People who want to bribe me use middlemen to help them. Those middlemen are either wealthy or powerful and I dare not offend them," Wang told the local court in his own defense Thursday.

He also told the court that he was not the only one in the brigade who took bribes.

Wang said that he didn't have the authority alone to deal with construction requests. Wang said he returned 1 million yuan to three people after their illegal structures were demolished.

"It's true that many employees in the civil service are taking bribes. Whenever you become one, you have to take bribes so you can survive," said Jiang Dehai, a professor from the East China University of Political Science and Law.

"But it can't be used as an excuse by officials to escape from being punished," he told the Global Times, adding that where there is bribery, there are dirty connections that harm society.