The quake in China

2.Several thousand people had been killed by the earthquake in China. 

I know the first sentence is fine. It is a passive sentence.

It is not correct to say 'has been killed' because the quake took place almost 2 weeks ago. The present perfect is not suitable for a past incident

Is the second sentence fine? 

I think the first sentence is correct. Your sentence below doesn't mention what took place before the loss of lives.

Several thousand people had been killed by the earthquake in China. 

I think this sentence is better: After the earthquake had struck China, several thousand  people were killed.

Why do you CUT my sentence? This is NOT my sentence:

Several thousand people had been killed by the earthquake in China.

Also, your latest sentence should be:  

When the earthquake struck China, several thousand  people were killed.

It's very difficult to separate the timing of the earthquake from the timing of the killing, thus I think it's best to keep simple past in both.   

Your original 2nd sentence is not complete. I told you:

 2 is waiting/needs another event in simple past

This is not how one should use the past perfect. 

And I am out of here. You do what you want.  You seem to know better, why ask?