Leadfingers, there was also a quake in Gujarat, India in 2001 that killed over 20,000 people. Earthquakes are actually very common in this part of the world, and there is no reasonable justification for why they don't have the technology, except their governments and the world development organizations haven't been fit and decent enough to install it. I certainly hope that is corrected now.

BTW, that Ningxia-Kansu, China quake was a 8.6 magnitude. Sorry for the spectacular typo!