diff --git a/lang/functions_test.go b/lang/functions_test.go
index d27a487af9..d226a32aaf 100644
--- a/lang/functions_test.go
+++ b/lang/functions_test.go
@@ -472,6 +472,12 @@ func TestFunctions(t *testing.T) {
 				`jsonencode({"hello"="world"})`,
 				cty.StringVal("{\"hello\":\"world\"}"),
 			},
+			// We are intentionally choosing to escape <, >, and & characters
+			// to preserve backwards compatibility with Terraform 0.11
+			{
+				`jsonencode({"hello"="<cats & kittens>"})`,
+				cty.StringVal("{\"hello\":\"\\u003ccats \\u0026 kittens\\u003e\"}"),
+			},
 		},
 
 		"keys": {