At a factory in China’s manufacturing heartland, workers manually add small splashes of paint or glitter to printed images of flowers — small tweaks designed to boost dwindling profits in the face of softer global demand.

“We would like to say that if you can go high-end, the better the quality of your paintings, the more classic they will be. But in the current global economy?.?.?.?the more we sell, the lower the price,” said Wang Xiaosha, general manager at Fujian Jie Ao Industrial in Minhou county in China’s south-eastern Fujian province.

While President Xi Jinping wants China’s economy to focus on “new quality productive forces” — such as green technology and electric vehicles — low-end factories have long been the backbone of the country’s explosive growth and one of the largest sources of jobs.