This is our new ambassador to China
Published:
August 23, 2013 at 9:08pm
Clifford Borg Marks, Malta’s new ambassador to China
I bring you Clifford Borg Marks, Malta’s new ambassador to China. A search through the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists Offshore Leaks database reveals that Borg Marks owns the company Yansun Creatures Ltd, for which the following data is given:
Portcullis TrustNet Chambers P.O. Box 3444 Road Town, Tortola BRITISH VIRGIN ISLANDS
Jurisdiction
British Virgin Islands
Company type
Standard International Company
Incorporation date
12 Jan 2004
Status
active*
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http://cn.linkedin.com/pub/clifford-borg-marks-%E5%85%8B%E4%BF%9A%E7%A6%8F/b/473/600
Yansun Creatures is a film production company.
So that’s what PBS and CCTV will be doing together, paying this guy.
“After a long career with international firms, Clifford Borg-Marks now provides individual China IP counseling and consultancy services to his clients. His focus is on portfolio management, licensing, due diligence and lobbying. Cliff was regularly consulted by the Office of the USTR on IP issues in the run-up to China’s entry into the WTO, and in the 1990’s Cliff developed a pioneering IP practice and executed a remarkable number of IP ‘firsts’ in China.”
http://www.china-iprhelpdesk.eu/en/helpdesk-experts
Diving instructor.
Called to the bar in Tonga of all places.
Film maker.
Company registered in BVI for pretty obvious reasons.
A man for all seasons.
Puts Thomas More to shame.
Charles Muscat, the new High Commissioner to Canberra? Someone told me he owns a menswear shop in Canberra, and has therefore been chosen for the top diplomatic post there.
And that he once worked in the High Commission as the messenger/driver, so he has had the necessary exposure. Well done, Joey. The Maltese communities down under must be over the moon at the news.
I thought Yansun Creatures runs a Circus Company.
John Dalli should have gone to the Vigin Islands instead of neighbouring (relatively) Bahamas. Borg-Marks’s company specialises in “wealth administration”.
Seeing his attire one can easily conclude that he is a career diplomat.
Pity on all those people who studied to join the foreign service umbaghad jigi dan ic-cuc u jaghmluh ambaxxatur. How demoralising this kind of thing must be for the real diplomats at Malta’s foreign office. They work hard and these are the people who are positioned to front the show.
If there has ever been a posting in your blog which I have failed to understand it is exactly this one. I cannot fathom out what you are trying to say. Knowing Clifford personally, I would have expected you to comment on his escellent command of Chinese, his previous diplomatic career or else his excellent legal career in Hong Kong. Perhaps you need to own up that Clifford’s appointment as Malta Ambassador to Beijing is probably the best ever appointment by any Maltese Government in this particular post. We know who his predecessors were and perhaps your comments on their suitability or otherwise would have been of better comment or news value…
[Daphne – I speak perfect English, Mr Spiteri. Does that qualify me to be Malta’s High Commissioner in London? Does a legal career (as opposed to what, an illegal one?) qualify anybody at all to be an ambassador to anywhere at all? The best ambassadors are invariably seasoned diplomats with an understanding of the issues involved. They must also be well dressed, cultured, educated in the European sense of the word, have perfect manners (at table and elsewhere) and be good conversationalists. I see none of this here, but then I see none of it in other appointments, too.]
I agree with you that the qualities you mention may be absent in other appointments too : particularly two previous ambassadorial appointments to China under the PN government.
I am referring to Saviour Gauci and Karl Xuereb – their appointments which fell far below the yardstick you prescribe as to what qualities the best ambassadors should have.
Your play on words on what an alternative to a legal career can be is quite amusing: I wonder what a healthcare career would compare to – a funeral management career perhaps?
Nothing wrong with that.
What an odd picture – Chinese kids playing with cameras and microphones and then… his face. Weird enough to give any sensible, decent parent goose-bumps.
It’s a real life ‘Game of Thrones’ but really turned bad beyond imagination.
Next film, “Batman Retires”
MLP was never a serious political party for the advancement of the nation, but rather an organisation for the advancement of those who are loyal to it. Hence no need for a Constitution, laws or serious qualified people for top government post. It has been like this and it will continue to be. Amen to that.
Charming. All that’s missing from this photo is a laden supermarket trolley and a barn owl. Platform nine and three quarters here we come !
Obviously he had no gloves, so he had to pull his hands up into the jacket sleeves to protect his fingers from the cold wind blowing in his face.
Is lack of dress sense a requisite?
Apparti l-fatt li Borg Marks jaqbillu jfittex ihassar ir-ritratt muri f’dan il-blog ghaliex scarecrow huwa decenti ferm aktar minnu, nispera li ma jkun hawn l-ebda ghalliem f’pajjizna li jipprova jikkonvinci lill-istudenti li f’pajjizna l-istudju u s-serjeta’ jghinuk fil-karriera li wiehed jixtieq jaghzel ghall-futur.
Din tkun gidba hoxna hafna, sakemm wiehed ma jkunx laghqi prima kwalita’ tal-PL.
I’ve known Clifford Borg Marks since his schooldays at the Old Lyceum, Hamrun. Clifford was a diligent student, the epitome of a good student. As a young lad he was not afraid to venture abroad, something which our youngsters lack.
He has made a success of his life in a number of fields, while living in various parts of the world. Today he should be a real cosmopolitan.
Clifford is an asset to the Maltese nation, and I”m sure he will make a success in his new assignment as our Man in Beijing.
A real cosmopolitan would understand the appropriateness of dress and image. An ambassadorship is not a personal post. He represents a country and his manner of dress and self-presentation should reflect that.
If my buddies admired and praised me half as much as some of the subjects of this blog, I’d be a happy man.
What is it with you people? Each time Daphne writes about some ridiculous personage it’s “I’ve known him since childhood, he’s diligent, he’s bright, he’s an asset to our country, he comes from a frugal family of hardworking geniuses”, and other tripe.
Can’t the man defend himself?
“Marks” being the anglicized (and baptized) version of the Ashkenazi “Marx”, it should be an asset in China.
Wasn’t Clifford Borg Marks the recipient of a Chinese-Maltese friendship scholarship during the Golden Years? Back then, all Malta’s scholarships came from the Soviet Union, East Germany and China. Just ask the best-known recipients: Malta Enterprise chief Mario Vella (East Germany), Labour councillor Norman Shaw (Soviet Union), Sharon Ellul Bonici’s husband Kevin (Soviet Union) and conductor Brian Schembri (Soviet Union).
As the above comments state, you appear to be, for the upteenth time, off mark.
[Daphne – David, I have suggested this before as tactfully as I could, but I really think you are out of your depth here. You are too literal-minded, and you don’t have what is required for the contextual analysis of people and situations. You are the sort of ‘innocent who thinks himself cunning’ to whom a snake-oil merchant is able to sell snake-oil by producing ‘certificates of approval from important personages’.]
Isn’t that old man re-married to a wife, whose age could be his grand-daughter? From the LinkedIn provided above, his current position is: 1. Ambassador 2.President at his own company 3.Expert at an other company. Is this legal? Of course not. As an Ambassador, the person cannot own any business or any other position in the country where he is posted. He has both.
Indeed Mr. Permanent Secretary – what do you intend to do about this? Will he be allowed to carry on, ghax Malta Taghna Ikoll. So now we have individuals who have not lived in Malta for years looking after our interests. Way to go George.
Same goes for our man in Australia. Prosit tassew.