diff --git a/Amazon.IonDotnet.Tests/Internals/TextWriterJsonTest.cs b/Amazon.IonDotnet.Tests/Internals/TextWriterJsonTest.cs
index 2187947..8a6ed66 100644
--- a/Amazon.IonDotnet.Tests/Internals/TextWriterJsonTest.cs
+++ b/Amazon.IonDotnet.Tests/Internals/TextWriterJsonTest.cs
@@ -188,6 +188,16 @@ public void TestMinutePrecisionTimestampUtc()
             Assert.AreEqual("{\"value\":\"2010-06-15T03:30Z\"}", this.sw.ToString());
         }
 
+        [TestMethod]
+        public void TestStringEscapingDoesntUseShortForm()
+        {
+            value.SetField("value", factory.NewString("--" + (char)0x1f + "--"));
+            var reader = IonReaderBuilder.Build(value);
+            jsonWriter.WriteValues(reader);
+            // Json doesn't support the shorter \xNN form, only \uNNNN
+            Assert.AreEqual("{\"value\":\"--\\u001f--\"}", this.sw.ToString());
+        }
+
         [TestMethod]
         [ExpectedException(typeof(NotSupportedException))]
         public void TestClob()
diff --git a/Amazon.IonDotnet/Internals/Text/IonTextWriter.cs b/Amazon.IonDotnet/Internals/Text/IonTextWriter.cs
index 57ed571..71f26fc 100644
--- a/Amazon.IonDotnet/Internals/Text/IonTextWriter.cs
+++ b/Amazon.IonDotnet/Internals/Text/IonTextWriter.cs
@@ -263,7 +263,12 @@ public override void WriteTimestamp(Timestamp value)
         public override void WriteString(string value)
         {
             this.StartValue();
-            if (value != null && !this.followingLongString && this.options.LongStringThreshold < value.Length)
+            if (this.options.JsonDowngrade)
+            {
+                this.textWriter.WriteJsonString(value);
+                this.CloseValue();
+            }
+            else if (value != null && !this.followingLongString && this.options.LongStringThreshold < value.Length)
             {
                 this.textWriter.WriteLongString(value);
                 this.CloseValue();