Clifford Borg-Marks was born in 1957 and is a Birkirkara native.

Clifford attended government schools until, at age 16, he won a scholarship to attend UWC Atlantic College in Wales, United Kingdom, where he took Chinese among his subjects, learned how to scuba-dive, and qualified as an inshore lifeboat coxswain with the volunteer Royal National Lifeboat Institution station on campus.

In 1977, Clifford proceeded to Beijing, China, as a scholarship student. After a year of intensive language training, he went to Peking University and graduated with a BA in Chinese Literature in 1982. He subsequently undertook graduate studies in Chinese law at the University of East Asia, and studies in South Pacific legal systems at the University of the South Pacific, following which he was admitted as a Law Practitioner (barrister and solicitor) in the Supreme Court of Tonga.

In 1982, Clifford joined the Ministry of Foreign Affairs as Diplomatic Officer for Far East Affairs, and served in Beijing, as Malta’s first resident diplomat in China, in the role of First Secretary and Chargé d’Affaires a.i. at the Embassy of Malta in Beijing (1982-86). He then went on to serve as First Secretary and Acting High Commissioner at the Malta High Commission in Canberra (1986-87).

In 1990, Clifford joined the China practice group of the Hong Kong office of an international law firm. Over the years, he headed the firm’s pioneering China intellectual property (IP) practice in advising multinational corporations on the acquisition, protection and exploitation of IP rights in mainland China. He was consistently ranked by Chambers & Partners as a leading practitioner.

In 2013, Clifford was called to serve Malta once again as Ambassador to the People’s Republic of China (2013-2015), with concurrent accreditation to Mongolia and the Philippines. During his tenure in Beijing, Clifford was also a Guest Professor at the China University of Political Science and Law. In December 2016, Clifford was appointed a Member of the National Order of Merit by the President of the Republic for his contributions to the development of Malta-China political and economic relations.

After returning to private practice in Hong Kong in 2015, Clifford continued to serve Malta as non-resident Ambassador to Thailand and High Commissioner to Malaysia and Singapore. Clifford has also represented Malta on the Board of Governors of the Asia-Europe Foundation (ASEF) headquartered in Singapore.

Now, as High Commissioner to Australia and New Zealand, Clifford is keen to strengthen Malta’s political, economic, scientific and cultural relations with these two countries and to engage with the Maltese diaspora in the region. From Canberra, he is also accredited as Malta’s first Ambassador to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and has been tasked with building ties with this important regional organisation.

Clifford has written and edited several publications on Chinese IP law, and his translations into Maltese of Lu Xun’s A Call to Arms and Tao Te Ching, the Taoist classic, have been published in Malta.

During a break from his legal practice, Clifford attended filmmaking courses in New York. He has produced and directed award-winning documentaries and has assisted European film productions as line producer in feature films shot on location in Shanghai.

Clifford is married to Fiona Jin Fan, and they have two sons. He also has two grown-up daughters from a previous marriage.