  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.
