In my opinion a stealth cruise missile is more effective than a ballistic missile in China's current hostile environment. In order to defeat US missile shield, that is beeing deployed in Japan and S. Korea, or India's ABM system, China's cruise missiles could be a surprise weapon. These ABM systems are focused on ballistic missile defense, but hardly are also effective against cruise missiles.
The advantages of LACM over ballistic missiles are:
1-they are usually less expensive than ballistic missiles, so a larger number can be deployed at the same cost.
2-they are harder to detect by radars, since they can fly at very low altitude. This feature is greatly enhanced if the missile has also stealth features. Space based sensors can detect a ballistic missile beeing fired, but it's hard to detect a cruise missile launch. This compensate their slower speed.
3-their precision is usually very accurate (CEP< 3-10 m), this compensate their smaller payload.
4-cruise missiles are always on mobile TEL, thus a preventive attack on them is very difficult.