European network vendors have been facing fears that the US-China trade wars might lead to Chinese operators relying more heavily on their homegrown suppliers, as the country seeks greater hi-tech self-sufficiency. That could mean lower sales for Nokia and Ericsson as well as actual US vendors. So they will have been relieved to be able to announce new 5G contracts from the three Chinese operators, which have switched on their first 5G services and are rapidly expanding their networks. Nokia said it had won contracts worth a total of CNY15.7bn ($2.2bn) from China’s MNOs, while Ericsson has also won deals, though has not revealed the value. Nokia’s win includes 5G cooperation framework deals for 2020 with China Mobile, China Telecom…