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For the countries surrounding the South China Sea, the South China Sea issues are directly  related to their national interest. Their evaluation of the South China Sea issues’ position in their  national interest will influence their strategic orientation and strategic actions they might take.  From the perspective of grand strategy, the South China Sea issues are just a part of the claimant  countries’ national interest framework. Therefore, only by reasonably and properly defining the  position of South China Sea issues in the national strategic system can these countries make  rational strategic decisions. Otherwise, they may overestimate the position of South China Sea in their national interest, or may be so short-sighted in their orientation that they might ignore their long-term national interest. If so, these claimant countries may make strategic mistakes. This paper will analyze the position of South China Sea in the national interest framework, and the claimant countries’ strategic choice and their correlation, will try to find the reasonable position of the South China Sea issues, and will illustrate the claimant countries’ rational strategic choice, so as to explain the trend of development of the relationship between countries around the South  China Sea.

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[1]Condoleezza Rice “Rethinking the National Interest: American Realism for a New World “, Foreign Affairs,

July/August 2008.