Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) has urged 22 American universities to end their academic and research partnerships with Chinese schools that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has tasked with supporting Beijing’s military modernization. “I remain deeply concerned by the PLA’s [People’s Liberation Army] aggressive campaign to infiltrate America’s research enterprise,” Rubio wrote in letters dated Feb. 8. “For decades, Beijing has openly exploited the expertise of Chinese students and scholars studying or conducting research in the United States to accelerate the PRC’s economic and military development,” the letters read, referring to the country’s official name, the People’s Republic of China. The letters were addressed to 22 U.S. universities, which have entered into academic or research partnerships with Chinese universities that are charged with implementing the CCP’s military-civil fusion (MCF) strategy. The state-led strategy seeks to harness civilian-developed research and technology to aid China’s military modernization, thus blurring the line between civilian …