BEIJING — China has more room to act on fiscal policy amid domestic and external uncertainties, Finance Minister Lan Fo’an told reporters on Thursday.

He was responding to a question during China’s “Two Sessions” annual parliamentary meeting about the country’s plans for proactive fiscal policy this year.

China on Wednesday announced it was raising its on-budget deficit to 4% of the country’s gross domestic product — the highest since at least 2010.

The government also plans to issue 1.3 trillion yuan ($178.9 billion) in ultra-long-term special treasury bonds in 2025, marking a 300 billion yuan hike from last year. The increased amount is primarily set to support the consumer trade-in program.

China said it aims to issue 4.4 trillion yuan of local government special-purpose bonds this year — or a 500 billion yuan increase from last year — to help ease the financial strains of local authorities.

The country on Wednesday also said it would target a gross domestic product increase of around 5% this year, while lowering its inflation target to 2% — the lowest in around 20 years.

“China has delivered a pro-growth message here at the [National People’s Congress], in line with expectations,” said Aaron Costello, head of Asia at Cambridge Associates. The NPC is part of the “Two Sessions” meeting.

Costello noted that, beyond specific stimulus programs, the bigger issue facing China has been low business and consumer sentiment. He pointed to encouraging signals such as Chinese President Xi Jinping’s meeting with many tech entrepreneurs last month to encourage private business growth.

This breaking news story is being updated.

BEIJING — The undercurrent of China’s annual parliamentary meetings this week is U.S. trade tensions — and how Chinese technology is offsetting that pressure.

The largely ceremonial gathering of delegates in Beijing this year came just as U.S. President Donald Trump addressed Congress and imposed new tariffs on Chinese goods. It’s a clear drag on exports, while Chinese companies have only faced tougher restrictions on accessing high-end semiconductors and other advanced tech.

“Internationally … an increasingly complex and severe external environment may exert a greater impact on China in areas such as trade, science and technology,” Chinese Premier Li Qiang said in his annual report on government work at the opening ceremony of the National People’s Congress on Wednesday, according to an official English translation of the Chinese.

It was an unusually grim assessment at least among the seven parliamentary meetings I have attended. But I also sensed a greater willingness to support the private sector than in the past — especially as it relates to tech innovation, such as with Chinese AI company DeepSeek.

“We will promote the healthy and well-regulated development of the platform economy and give better play to its role in inspiring innovation, expanding consumption and stabilizing employment,” Li said in the work report.

That marked the latest signal that Beijing now wants to support the private sector after previously taking a far more restrictive stance and imposing large fines on tech giants Alibaba and Tencent, often called “platform“ companies in China. Many companies and industries in China have historically been dominated by the state.

DeepSeek’s recent rise demonstrated to many international investors — who had grown cautious on the slowing economy — how a Chinese company could compete with the U.S. on AI, regardless of White House sanctions.

Beijing was quick to affirm the startup’s success. DeepSeek’s Liang Wenfeng attended a meeting with Premier Li in January, and a symposium with Chinese President Xi Jinping in February.

California has paused rebate programs offering thousands of dollars to consumers who make their homes and appliances more energy efficient due to a Trump administration freeze on federal funding.

While a handful of other states also recently halted their programs, California is the largest state to delay a rollout so far — putting $582 million earmarked for consumers and program administration at risk.

California had issued its first rebate check to consumers in February, according to the state’s Energy Commission.

“Many states were just getting started on their programs, and suddenly they’re tossed into turmoil,” said Lowell Ungar, director of federal policy at the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy.

The programs in question, Home Energy Rebates, were created through the Inflation Reduction Act. President Biden signed it into law in 2022.

The law allocated up to $8.8 billion of federal funds for states, territories and the District of Columbia to disburse to consumers in the form of rebates.

Consumers were provided up to $8,000 of Home Efficiency Rebates and up to $14,000 of Home Electrification and Appliance Rebates, per federal law. Maximum amounts vary per household, depending on factors like income eligibility.

The rebates aim to reduce the cost of home upgrades like installing insulation and heat pumps or buying efficient appliances like electric stoves — with an eye to also reducing consumers’ energy bills and cutting planet-warming carbon emissions.

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All states except South Dakota had applied for the federal funds. The U.S. Department of Energy approved those applications, and states were in various phases of rollout by the end of the Biden administration.

However, the Trump administration on Jan. 27 put a freeze on the disbursement of federal funds that conflict with the president’s agenda, including initiatives related to green energy and climate change.

The fate of that freeze is up in the air as courts weigh legal challenges to the policy.

The U.S. Department of Energy didn’t return a request from CNBC for comment.

The California Energy Commission — which had launched an $80 million first phase of its home energy rebate program in the fall — paused its program on Feb. 25, according to a California Energy Commission website.

The pause will remain in place “until the Trump Administration provides additional information on the funding,” Commission staff wrote in an e-mailed statement.

California was approved for the second-largest tranche of funding for the energy rebate programs, behind only Texas. (The U.S. Energy Department awarded $689 million to Texas, according to an archived federal website.)

The Texas State Energy Conservation Office didn’t return a request for comment on the status of its program.

Since Jan. 31, California hasn’t been able to successfully draw down funds for administrative costs to run its rebate program, according to a California Energy Commission website. The U.S. Energy Department has also removed information about Home Energy Rebate programs from its website, the CEC said.

Not all states have paused their programs, however.

For example, officials in Maine and North Carolina recently confirmed to CNBC that funding through their rebate programs remains available — for now.

The North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality is “closely watching any federal actions that may change the operations of the Energy Saver NC program,” a spokesperson said in an e-mailed statement.

Different states may have “different risk tolerances” when it comes to administering these programs and issuing rebates when it’s unclear if they’ll eventually be reimbursed, Ungar said.