The Tarim Basin, located in the central part of the mid-latitude arid region in the Northern Hemisphere, is essential for elucidating the timing and forcing mechanism of aridification in Central Asia, as well as for understanding the interplay between regional tectonics and climate in the context of global cooling. Here, we present multiple environmental magnetism parameters derived from the late Cenozoic terrigenous deposits in the southern Tian Shan foreland, northern Tarim Basin, based on the published high-resolution chronology. Combined with the published results of deformation around the Tian Shan, we discuss the tectonic-climate interplay during its upward and outward propagation. Our results reveal that both the relative and absolute concentrations of hematite experienced abrupt decreases, indicating that the extreme aridification of the Tarim Basin was initiated at similar to 5.3 Ma. Regional tectonics, especially the collision between the Pamir and Tian Shan, and their tectonic uplift, finally obstructed the water vapor transported by the westerlies from the upwind Paratethys Ocean to the Tarim Basin. Furthermore, the emergence of deserts in Central Asia, particularly the Taklimakan Desert, which further reduced the regional precipitation and increased dust emission and dust fluxes, also contributed to the extreme aridification of the Tarim Basin via the feedback mechanism of dust. We propose that the interaction between tectonics and climate controlled the building and outward propagation of the Tian Shan since the latest Miocene. Tectonics dominated the deformation within the Tian Shan, while climate contributed to it through modulating the critical taper by regulating the erosional and depositional processes. The tectonic-climate-dust feedback mechansim identified here provides a universal framework for understanding aridification dynamics in other mid-latitude continental interiors (e.g., the Andes foreland or Iranian Plateau), where similar mountain-basin coupling and westerlies-dominated systems exist. Our results shed lights on the interaction between tectonics and climate in shaping the topography of active mountains in arid area. To distinguish the individual contributions of tectonics and climate in shaping mountain topography, further modeling studies are necessary.