On August 13, 2021, Vice Foreign Minister Ma Zhaoxu was interviewed by the reporter of CCTV after chairing the briefing on COVID-19 origin-tracing for diplomatic envoys in China.

Ma Zhaoxu said, today the Ministry of Foreign Affairs held a briefing specially for diplomatic envoys and representatives of international organizations in China to expound China's position on and proposition for origin-tracing in a comprehensive way and introduce in detail the actions taken by China to support and take part in global cooperation in origin-tracing. The briefing was attended by more than 160 diplomatic envoys and representatives of international organizations in China. The international community widely supports science-based origin-tracing efforts, but opposes politicizing origin-tracing. This fully shows that the U.S. political manipulation on origin-tracing receives little support and will get nowhere, except boomeranging against itself in the end.

Ma Zhaoxu stressed that China will work with other parties to carry out science-based global origin-tracing in a scientific attitude, and contribute China's part to humanity's final victory over COVID-19.