Reinforced concrete structure in a chloride and sulfate coupling environment is vulnerable to be deteriorated due to the combined chloride-sulfate attack. Based on the attack mechanism of chloride and sulfate, this review analyzed the diffusion-binding process of chloride and sulfate ions before and after damage of concrete caused by sulfate attack. Based on the classical diffusion-reaction model and the chemo-damage-transport theoretical framework, the effects of ion activity, temperature, microstructure change and calcium leaching on the chemo-damage-transport system were represented. The coupled transport thermodynamic model of chloride ions and sulfate ions was introduced from the perspective of thermodynamics. In addition, some existing problems in the current research were also prospected.