diff --git a/src/Text/Pandoc/Writers/HTML.hs b/src/Text/Pandoc/Writers/HTML.hs
index cb8bd35d3..9a093ad96 100644
--- a/src/Text/Pandoc/Writers/HTML.hs
+++ b/src/Text/Pandoc/Writers/HTML.hs
@@ -70,9 +70,7 @@ stringToHtml = primHtml . concatMap fixChar
       fixChar '>' = ">"
       fixChar '&' = "&"
       fixChar '"' = """
-      fixChar '\160' = " "
-      fixChar c | ord c < 0xff = [c]
-      fixChar c = "&#" ++ show (ord c) ++ ";"
+      fixChar c   = [c]
 
 -- | Convert Pandoc document to Html string.
 writeHtmlString :: WriterOptions -> Pandoc -> String
diff --git a/tests/s5.basic.html b/tests/s5.basic.html
index 4f49e3a57..253bcab2f 100644
--- a/tests/s5.basic.html
+++ b/tests/s5.basic.html
@@ -320,7 +320,7 @@
       >)=\lim<sub
       ><em
 	>h</em
-	>&#8201;&#8594;&#8201;0</sub
+	> → 0</sub
       >\frac{<em
       >f</em
       >(<em
diff --git a/tests/s5.fragment.html b/tests/s5.fragment.html
index 1d58e154a..6ab704d41 100644
--- a/tests/s5.fragment.html
+++ b/tests/s5.fragment.html
@@ -25,7 +25,7 @@
 	>)=\lim<sub
 	><em
 	  >h</em
-	  >&#8201;&#8594;&#8201;0</sub
+	  > → 0</sub
 	>\frac{<em
 	>f</em
 	>(<em
diff --git a/tests/s5.inserts.html b/tests/s5.inserts.html
index c8704871d..c223f0f45 100644
--- a/tests/s5.inserts.html
+++ b/tests/s5.inserts.html
@@ -40,7 +40,7 @@ STUFF INSERTED
 	>)=\lim<sub
 	><em
 	  >h</em
-	  >&#8201;&#8594;&#8201;0</sub
+	  > → 0</sub
 	>\frac{<em
 	>f</em
 	>(<em
diff --git a/tests/writer.html b/tests/writer.html
index 9ddf5c70c..c67cfbd42 100644
--- a/tests/writer.html
+++ b/tests/writer.html
@@ -444,7 +444,7 @@ These should not be escaped:  \$ \\ \&gt; \[ \{
     ><p
     >Should not be a list item:</p
     ><p
-    >M.A.&nbsp;2007</p
+    >M.A. 2007</p
     ><p
     >B. Williams</p
     ><hr
@@ -783,7 +783,7 @@ Blah
       >hello</em
       ></sup
     > a<sup
-    >hello&nbsp;there</sup
+    >hello there</sup
     >.</p
   ><p
   >Subscripts: H<sub
@@ -791,7 +791,7 @@ Blah
     >O, H<sub
     >23</sub
     >O, H<sub
-    >many&nbsp;of&nbsp;them</sub
+    >many of them</sub
     >O.</p
   ><p
   >These should not be superscripts or subscripts, because of the unescaped spaces: a^b c^d, a~b c~d.</p
@@ -836,13 +836,13 @@ Blah
     ><span class="math"
       ><em
 	>x</em
-	>&#8201;&#8712;&#8201;<em
+	> ∈ <em
 	>y</em
 	></span
       ></li
     ><li
     ><span class="math"
-      >&#945;&#8201;&#8743;&#8201;&#969;</span
+      >α ∧ ω</span
       ></li
     ><li
     ><span class="math"
@@ -867,7 +867,7 @@ Blah
 	>)=\lim<sub
 	><em
 	  >h</em
-	  >&#8201;&#8594;&#8201;0</sub
+	  > → 0</sub
 	>\frac{<em
 	>f</em
 	>(<em
@@ -884,7 +884,7 @@ Blah
       ></li
     ><li
     >Here&rsquo;s one that has a line break in it: <span class="math"
-      >&#945;+&#969;&#8201;×&#8201;<em
+      >α+ω × <em
 	>x</em
 	><sup
 	>2</sup
@@ -930,7 +930,7 @@ Blah
     ><li
     >section: §</li
     ><li
-    >set membership: &#8712;</li
+    >set membership: ∈</li
     ><li
     >copyright: ©</li
     ></ul