Don't phones in China already not use proprietary Google stuff? The cyber attacks being aided here are surely on Huawei owners outside of China (US/Europe mostly I expect?) where their phone shipped with Google Play and could get Google updates/other services?

The open source version of Android is still available. Why wouldn’t that be getting updates?

Will I, as a European customer of Huawei, still get app updates from Google Play and push messages via firebase cloud messaging? Without the Google framework my phone is a brick...

Yes, for your current phone. But the way I read it, Google won't support any further updates to the OS.

WhatsApp and signal work fine without GCM/FCM, dunno about other apps but WhatsApp it's international standard so you are fine

you can get updates through their own app store AppGallery, but your paid apps are paid through Google, so don't expect them in order store, tying your money to Google ecosystem was bad idea in first place

>WhatsApp and signal work fine without GCM/FCM, dunno about other apps but WhatsApp it's international standard so you are fine

Probably not after Android 8.

they both work fine on pie

That part could, but the others couldn't. Including all apps shipped on Google Play.

Do people in China even use the Google Playstore? (serious question)

No, it it not available there.

But Huawei has a large marketshare outside China. E.g. in Europe they are currently neck-to-neck with Apple in smartphone sales.