Abstract: Social capital and human capital, as social intangible assets in frontier deep poverty areas, play important roles in achieving “two returns” of targeted poverty alleviation and borders′ sustainable livelihoods in the border areas. This article uses logistic model to estimate the impact of social capital on the livelihood strategies and poverty alleviation in the frontier areas with the field survey data of Xinjiang′s Kirgiz in July 2016,and uses qualitative and quantitative research methods to interpret the research results. The study finds that social capital contributes to the reduction of poverty of border people, and this positive effect is mainly achieved through two paths: the border people rely on the social network to improve the availability of formal finance to realize the expansion and reproduction of breeding;border people can increase the transfer payment income through collective public activities. But the poverty reduction path of social capital through the diversification of livelihood strategies to improve people′s livelihood capacity has not been formed. So in order to achieve sustainable poverty reduction, it is suggested that in the crucial period of poverty alleviation in frontier deep poverty areas, the promotion of social capital to increase border residents′ income must be given full play to, and the main obstacles also need measures to break to strengthen the ability support path by social capital,guiding the establishment of the borders′ diversified livelihoods.

Key words: frontier deep poverty, social capital, livelihood strategy, targeted poverty alleviation