HONG KONG - China's Communist Party has haunted Leung's family for generations.
Her father, Guo Yao, fled forced labor and the violent purges of the Cultural Revolution for a better life in Hong Kong, where he arrived with his wife in 1973 to find relative freedom and prosperity.
Years later, as his family watched the ceremony marking Hong Kong's 1997 handover from Britain to China, his then-teenage daughter had a premonition.
"I thought to myself, maybe one day we will have to run away from the Chinese Communist Party again," said Leung, now 36. "I just didn't imagine it would be this soon."
With their political freedoms deteriorating, nurses, lawyers, business people and other skilled workers are rushing to renew documents that could provide a pathway to residency in Britain, or finding ways to emigrate to Taiwan, Canada or Australia.
Applications for police certificates required to emigrate soared almost 80% to nearly 21,000 in the latter half of 2019 from a year earlier, even before the advent of the security law, coinciding with a crackdown on pro-democracy protests.
The exodus of talent recalls the pre-handover years, when anxiety over Beijing's rule drove tens of thousands of people out of Hong Kong. Many eventually trickled back, having obtained second passports as insurance, when the initial period of Chinese control seemed relatively benign.
This time is different; many say they have no plans to return and see little hope for a better Hong Kong. Those preparing to leave say they are wracked with guilt about abandoning their home at a pivotal moment, yet deeply worried about their futures and those of their children if they were to stay.