Thanks to increasing support in border areas, living conditions in Xinjiang border villages have gradually improved, with more and more residents shaking off poverty.

According to the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region Poverty Alleviation Office, the region has allocated over 600 million RMB to boost the quality of life of border residents. Xinjiang has also increased its efforts in ecological and environmental protection. For example, in recent years, 20,000 biogas digesters have been built for poor families; 30,000 households have had their toilets upgraded, and 24,000 have seen their kitchens renovated. A total of 87,000 mu of artificial grassland has been installed, greatly enhancing the region’s ecological capacity.

In China, Xinjiang is the province with the longest land border and largest number of neighboring countries. Seventeen of the region's 34 border counties are impoverished. By the end of 2015, there were still 726 impoverished villages in Xinjiang, 289 of which are located along the border.

Living in a fragile ecological environment and an extremely impoverished state, residents in alpine border areas face the hurdles of poor education, insufficient medical care and sub-par transportation and housing. Thus, there is a clear and urgent need to further improve living standards along the border.

In March 2007, Aheqi County was selected to pilot a poverty alleviation program, marking the beginning of border poverty alleviation work in Xinjiang. In September 2010, China further expanded the pilot program by 17 counties. From 2014 to 2015, 186 villages in 34 border counties, encompassing 65,000 households and 265,000 people, rose out of poverty.