The recent developments of the phase string theory for doped antiferromagnets will be briefly reviewed. Such theory is built upon a singular phase string effect induced by the motion of holes in a doped antiferromagnet, which as a precise property of the t-J model dictates the novel competition between the charge and spin degrees of freedom. A global phase diagram including the antiferromagnetic, superconducting, lower and upper pseudogap, and high-temperature "normal" phases, as well as a series of anomalous physical properties of these phases will be presented as the self-consistent and systematic consequences of the phase string theory.