diff --git a/Objects/object.c b/Objects/object.c
index 1b8d4e1..b2a5492 100644
--- a/Objects/object.c
+++ b/Objects/object.c
@@ -303,12 +303,15 @@
             }
             else if (PyUnicode_Check(s)) {
                 PyObject *t;
-                t = _PyUnicode_AsDefaultEncodedString(s, NULL);
+                t = PyUnicode_EncodeUTF8(PyUnicode_AS_UNICODE(s),
+                                         PyUnicode_GET_SIZE(s),
+                                         "backslashreplace");
                 if (t == NULL)
                     ret = 0;
                 else {
                     fwrite(PyBytes_AS_STRING(t), 1,
                            PyBytes_GET_SIZE(t), fp);
+                    Py_DECREF(t);
                 }
             }
             else {