Many Chinese victims in Chinatown and other areas where Chinese are prostitutes and reluctant to report any incidents of gang harassment to authorities because they fear possible retaliation. First-generation immigrants, who often speak limited English, may be in the country illegally or have a general distrust of the police or of government in general. Many immigrants emigrated from countries where the police routinely intimidate the population – such as with Communist China and Taiwan under President Chiang Kai-shek's martial law – or where the government persecuted the population, as with Thailand and Vietnam. In Hong Kong, until recently, the police were often corrupt and ineffective.