For all the reasons set out above, the coming year will be a critical one for Huawei, especially in Europe, where it needs to lobby governments not to impose US-style restrictions, and to consolidate its position with operators. The latter will be essential to drive growth in the Chinese firm’s second largest market, western Europe. It is entering a critical period of operator investment – the first phase of 5G-driven capex spending, in which each vendor will get a strong indication of how well its products and messaging will play in the new networks. With some home advantage in Greater China, but no ability to sell 5G in the USA, the two largest early 5G markets are polarized in terms…