Active splitting control utilizes real-time decision and system-level splitting to prevent cascading blackouts and to maintain power supply under severe disturbances. Splitting strategy searching (SSS) is one of the most crucial issues in active splitting control for deciding ‘‘where to split’’. SSS determines the splitting surface in real time to properly divide the asynchronous generators into isolated islands with an optimal control effect. In this paper, an SSS approach that focuses on island stability is presented. The proposed SSS approach is designed to ensure a rational stability margin and regulation ability on each island during and after the transient process of system splitting. This method includes the active/reactive power flow feasibility constraints and voltage/angle stability constraints in the steady state, as well as the frequency response capability constraints in the transient process. By considering the island stability constraints in the SSS, the proposed approach can avoid the splitting strategies with poor stability performance. Therefore, the major advantage of the proposed approach is ensuring better island static and transient stability during and after the splitting control. In addition, the entire model is formulated as a mixedinteger second-order cone programming (MISOCP) model. Thus, it can be rapidly solved by using commercial optimization solvers. Numerical simulation of a realistic provincial power system in central China demonstrates the validity of the proposed approach and the necessity of considering the island stability issues.