Profile: US President Barack Obama

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2009-11-16 09:52

BEIJING: US President Barack Obama begins his first state visit to China on Sunday at the invitation of Chinese President Hu Jintao. The following is a brief profile of the US president:

Born in 1961 in Honolulu, Hawaii, Obama spent part of his childhood in the Indonesian capital, Jakarta.

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After graduation from high school, he attended Occidental College in California. Two years later, he transferred to Columbia University in New York, where he majored in political science with a specialization in international relations and received his bachelor's degree in 1983.

He entered Harvard Law School in 1988 and obtained his doctor's degree in 1991. After graduation, he worked in a law firm in Chicago where he practiced civil rights law and taught the Constitution at the University of Chicago.

As a Democrat, Obama served three terms in the Illinois Senate from 1997 to 2004. He was elected in the congressional elections in 2004 as a US senator. He won the presidential election in 2008 and was inaugurated on January 20, 2009.

Obama married Michelle Robinson in 1992. They have two daughters.

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