If you know it will happen, it is a part of price.

I believe Parent is talking about trust in the ability to deliver on promises, not in handling of IP.

Oh I agree. But I'd say trust is the wrong word

They're reliable, but would you really trust them?

I think there's a bit of nuance there to differentiate the 2 though.

Maybe I'm jaded from working with overseas factories though in ways others wouldn't be.

That's a good clarification.

Trust implies shared values/worldview and past experiences where outcomes match expectations. Also respect.

Trust is not possible when there are regularly incongruous outcomes, or where definition of respect / values are just aren't aligned.

Do you think your counterparts overseas believe themselves to be as trustable as you are, and it's just a cultural rift? Or is that too charitable?

Are you saying you don’t reverse engineer your competitors, and friends, products?

I'm not contracted out to build a product for these companies or people like a factory would be

So not really a good comparison

When you have the design it takes away alot of the need to even reverse engineer in the first place

China sent tiktok the the US, the gifted geniuses of silicon valley duplicated it and when their clones were garbage they just took it and said "we own this now"