Well, it took a few weeks, but my Chinese "Vortex" Sparc has arrived. Time will tell whether it holds its zero, but so far it seems solid, works properly, and the red dot is small enough that it probably is 2 MOA as advertized.
I still suspect that these are coming out of the same factor that make the branded Sparcs. I've seen this sort of thing before with, for example, the lasermax pistol lasers.
Anyone interested, check out aliexpress. My guess is that in the next few years, this site will start to seriously compete with ebay. Prices are excellent for all the crap that is made in China already -- just fewer middlemen to take their cut.
What makes you think it comes out of the same factory that builds the branded Sparcs? Also, what proof do you have that the fake lasermax clones from Ali-express come out of the same factory as the real ones?
Ali-Express is not new and has been selling fake Chinese rip-offs for years and is well known for that. None of the knives/electronics/tools I've ever seen that were purchased from that site are remotely close to the real thing. They don't pay for licensing/patents and blatantly rip off legit knife-makers as well as other manufacturers.