Having read that Quality Assurance (QA) is focused on processes (while Quality Control (QC) is focused on the product), the books often mentions QA is the verification process - doing peer reviews, inspections etc. I still tend to think these are also QC as they check intermediate products.

Elsewhere I have read that QA activity is e.g. choosing the right bugtracker. That sounds better to me in terms of process improvement.

The question that close-voting person obviously missed is pretty clear:
What are the activities that true QA should perform?
I would appreciate the reference as I work on my thesis dealing with all these discrepancies and inconsistencies in the software quality world.