China wants to develop something that can post threats to the US battle groups. Because of the fire power and air superiority, there is a little chance for the Chinese navy or air force to even getting close to the battle groups without sustain heavy lost. Hence with ballistic anti-ship missile, China may be able to launch attack remotely. Because ships move, unlike a typical ballistic missile target which is fixed, the warhead now has to be Maneuverable reentry vehicle (MarV). A typical ballistic missile warhead is with round nose, and it's reentry speed is very high so that it is hard to intercept. Hence, there is no way to maneuver that warhead once it starts its reentry. A MarV can, however, changes its course, kind of like the space shuttle orbiter. The question is how it is gonna find its target once the air break slows down the MarV into maneuverable speed. That is kind of hard, how are you gonna tell the warhead where to go?

The effectiveness of this type of weapon is yet to see.