diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index 786e589..78cc0af 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -8,7 +8,10 @@
 
 ##### Bug Fixes
 
-* None.  
+* Force encode branch name to properly clone it.  
+  [xdkhan](https://github.com/xdkhan)
+  [Dimitris Koutsogiorgas](https://github.com/dnkoutso)
+  [#116](https://github.com/CocoaPods/cocoapods-downloader/pull/116) 
 
 
 ## 1.4.0 (2020-07-17)
diff --git a/lib/cocoapods-downloader/git.rb b/lib/cocoapods-downloader/git.rb
index 307e6d0..f7914e6 100644
--- a/lib/cocoapods-downloader/git.rb
+++ b/lib/cocoapods-downloader/git.rb
@@ -52,7 +52,8 @@ def self.preprocess_options(options)
       #
       def self.commit_from_ls_remote(output, branch_name)
         return nil if branch_name.nil?
-        match = %r{([a-z0-9]*)\trefs\/(heads|tags)\/#{Regexp.quote(branch_name)}}.match(output)
+        encoded_branch_name = branch_name.force_encoding(Encoding::ASCII_8BIT)
+        match = %r{([a-z0-9]*)\trefs\/(heads|tags)\/#{Regexp.quote(encoded_branch_name)}}.match(output)
         match[1] unless match.nil?
       end
 
diff --git a/spec/git_spec.rb b/spec/git_spec.rb
index d518f59..bafea00 100644
--- a/spec/git_spec.rb
+++ b/spec/git_spec.rb
@@ -26,6 +26,13 @@ def fixture_url(name)
           tmp_folder('README').read.strip.should == 'topic_branch'
         end
 
+        it 'checks out a specific branch with forced encoding' do
+          options = { :git => fixture('git-repo'), :branch => '中文分支' }
+          downloader = Downloader.for_target(tmp_folder, options)
+          downloader.download
+          tmp_folder('README').read.strip.should == '中文分支'
+        end
+
         it 'checks out a specific tag' do
           options = { :git => fixture('git-repo'), :tag => 'v1.0' }
           downloader = Downloader.for_target(tmp_folder, options)