Wei is scheduled to deliver a speech on China’s place in the Indo-Pacific region on the final day of the conference and will take questions afterwards, while his American counterpart will speak a day earlier.
The US and China are in the midst of delicate trade negotiations that hit a stumbling block last week after the Trump administration threatened to blacklist Chinese telecommunications conglomerate Huawei Technologies Co.
It is the first time China has sent its defence minister to the annual event since Liang Guanglie attended in 2011.
