I source thousands of tons of material from Chinese factories, and the QA challenge is different. My option is to station Chinese employees (who are trustworthy) at multiple factories overseas to verify product quantities and quality prior to sailing the can. Or I could have my Chinese-American staff in the US office monitor shipments via remote robotics.

Certainly telepresence does not replace international trips to build and maintain the relationship, but it can greatly assist in monitoring QA processes after the initial setup has been completed.

My point is that maybe there is an opportunity for such solution today. Instead of an expensive robot, one could hire a trusted person to hold a camera, so someone else could do the inspection remotely.

Would that be useful for your job?