This isn't the same as the US or Russian policy (since 1993), which both retain the policy option of preemtive strikes.
Tools like THAAD reduce China's ability to present a credible second-strike, which has led them to object extremely strenuously to it.
Partially because of THAAD it seems that China is considering changing their doctrine[2]. This would be unfortunate, and it seems likely that there are many in the Chinese government who would prefer not to have to do that. If they could get THAAD deployment in Korea cancelled it would be likely to strengthen their hand.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No_first_use
[2] http://thediplomat.com/2016/02/is-china-considering-a-high-r...
It is designed for dealing with theatre missiles, IRBMs and the like, which move much more slowly, aren't well protected and aren't generally considered in the MAD calcul
Per state.gov:
Many of our regional defense deployments, like the Patriot system and the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense, or THAAD system, are inherently designed for theater use. They are not capable of defending against ICBMs launched at the United States. THAAD, however, is capable of defending against the medium-range and intermediate-range ballistic missile that North Korea is deploying.
[It's a bit more complicated than that, of course. And THAAD isn't 100% effective. But the details don't change the overall picture much.]
If a missile is ever stopped by THAAD, it means SK+US didn't want it to land. Which probably means China+NK launched it, and did want it to land. Meanwhile, if SK+US decide to go on the offensive, THAAD won't stop their attack, but will mitigate any retaliation from China+NK.
THAAD is bad for China+NK in both scenarios.
In addition, since THAAD's existence makes it a whole lot less risky for US+SK to go on the offensive -- it makes it more likely that they would do so. And China+NK certainly wouldn't want to defend against a US+SK with THAAD being in place.