At a factory in northern China, workers are busy testing an automated vehicle designed to move bulky items around industrial spaces, one of a new generation of robots Beijing wants to shift the country’s manufacturing up the value chain. The Tianjin-based robot maker has received tax breaks and government-guaranteed loans to build products that modernize China’s vast factory sector and advance its technological expertise. “The Chinese regime is paying great attention to the manufacturing sector and the real economy—we can feel that,” said Ren Zhiyong, general manager of Tianjin Langyu Robot Co, as he gave Reuters a guided tour of his plant. China is backing R&D efforts by high-tech manufacturers like Langyu, driven by an urgent desire to reduce reliance on imported technology and reinforce its dominance as a global factory power, even as it cracks down on other parts of the economy. Beijing’s pivot puts the focus on advanced …