In this case, I would rather deal with a US based middle man that has offices, warehouses, and employees here vs an unknown overseas company.That's one thing that scares me with an Asian filter, "if" there is an issue your going through a middleman not the manufacturer..
It is similar to my view on Harbor Freight Tools... sure you can probably find a lot of the same stuff on Ali Express or some other marketplace (heck, even Amazon these days). However if you have a warranty issue or worse a product safety recall... Harbor Freight will take care of it because they are subject to federal and state consumer protection laws and there's a US entity to go after if they decide not to play by the rules.