I've used multiple unknown chinese brand bought on aliexpress and have had NO problems at all.
There is no need to buy branded PCIE risers, these are pretty straightforward hardware and there isn't really much difference (except with the USB cables) among existing brands.
I have too, Chinese brand so far no problem as long as PCIe x1 / x16 on MB no problem and when install USB Riser from/to GPU is not loose also powering to USB is not short of power.
could there be something defective in the mb or something in the 16 causing it to short out?
can be possible