The report to the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC) proposes to advance rural revitalization across the board, put agricultural and rural development first, and consolidate and expand our achievements in poverty alleviation. The governance for preventing poverty-returning is a dynamic and complex process involving governance space, subjects, elements, and mechanisms. It is essentially about the systematic reconstruction of livelihood capabilities and rights. The sustainable livelihood theory emphasizes human capabilities and rights, focusing not only on material resources and livelihood environments but also on subjective choices and livelihood rights of humans. It systematically reveals the intrinsic logic of the innovation of governance mechanisms for preventing poverty-returning and sustainable livelihood system changes. Taking poverty alleviation through relocation as an example, this paper applies the sustainable livelihood theory to construct an analytical framework based on governance orientation and mechanisms to examine differentiated governance mechanisms for various types of poverty-returning. This paper finds that the poverty-returning governance in poverty alleviation through relocation must focus on secondary attributes and practical characteristics, precisely identify structural constraints hindering livelihood capability enhancement and livelihood rights protection, and categorize the capacity structures, resource endowments, and demands of the groups that had been lifted out of poverty falling back into poverty. Leveraging rural collective property rights reform and the “Three Rights Separation” land reform can boost relocation households’ livelihood capabilities and rights protection. To transition from vulnerability governance to sustainable development, consolidating the governance achievements for preventing poverty-returning must align with subsequent support policies. Guided by regional integrated development and livelihood sustainability, it should follow the collaborative evolution logic between the innovation of governance mechanisms for preventing poverty-returning and sustainable livelihood system changes, ultimately facilitating the modernization of the governance system and capacity for preventing poverty-returning in the post-relocation era.