In the 1970s, the Chinese did predict a quake in Liaoning Province.

There was a good history of quakes there, plus numerous observations of animal behavior, smaller quakes, well water changes, etc. They did move thousands of people out of doors and the quake (a 7 plus as I recall) happened with few lives lost.

However, the failure of the Chinese to predict a much larger quake in Tangshan a couple of years later was notable. At least 250,000 died in that one, and information was clamped down. Toll may have been 800,000.