diff --git a/packages/dom/src/dom/clean-node-list.js b/packages/dom/src/dom/clean-node-list.js
index c6ef7f658f2b98..8d1e0e9dfac4d7 100644
--- a/packages/dom/src/dom/clean-node-list.js
+++ b/packages/dom/src/dom/clean-node-list.js
@@ -52,9 +52,14 @@ export default function cleanNodeList( nodeList, doc, schema, inline ) {
 					} = schema[ tag ];
 
 					// If the node is empty and it's supposed to have children,
-					// remove the node.
+					// remove the node. For phrasing content, unwrap instead to
+					// preserve any whitespace content (e.g. <b> </b> between words).
 					if ( children && ! allowEmpty && isEmpty( node ) ) {
-						remove( node );
+						if ( isPhrasingContent( node ) ) {
+							unwrap( node );
+						} else {
+							remove( node );
+						}
 						return;
 					}
 
diff --git a/packages/dom/src/dom/test/clean-node-list.js b/packages/dom/src/dom/test/clean-node-list.js
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000000..8ab38492525db3
--- /dev/null
+++ b/packages/dom/src/dom/test/clean-node-list.js
@@ -0,0 +1,59 @@
+/**
+ * Internal dependencies
+ */
+import removeInvalidHTML from '../remove-invalid-html';
+
+describe( 'cleanNodeList', () => {
+	it( 'should preserve whitespace when unwrapping empty phrasing elements', () => {
+		const schema = {
+			p: { children: { '#text': {} } },
+		};
+		// Whitespace inside <b> should be preserved when <b> is unwrapped.
+		const input = '<p>some text<b> </b>more text</p>';
+		const output = '<p>some text more text</p>';
+		expect( removeInvalidHTML( input, schema, false ) ).toEqual( output );
+	} );
+
+	it( 'should preserve whitespace in various phrasing elements', () => {
+		const schema = {
+			p: { children: { '#text': {} } },
+		};
+		// Test with different phrasing elements.
+		expect(
+			removeInvalidHTML(
+				'<p>hello<strong> </strong>world</p>',
+				schema,
+				false
+			)
+		).toEqual( '<p>hello world</p>' );
+		expect(
+			removeInvalidHTML( '<p>hello<em> </em>world</p>', schema, false )
+		).toEqual( '<p>hello world</p>' );
+		expect(
+			removeInvalidHTML( '<p>hello<sup> </sup>world</p>', schema, false )
+		).toEqual( '<p>hello world</p>' );
+	} );
+
+	it( 'should remove truly empty elements without whitespace', () => {
+		const schema = {
+			p: { children: { '#text': {} } },
+		};
+		const input = '<p>some text<b></b>more text</p>';
+		const output = '<p>some textmore text</p>';
+		expect( removeInvalidHTML( input, schema, false ) ).toEqual( output );
+	} );
+
+	it( 'should remove empty block elements entirely (not unwrap)', () => {
+		const schema = {
+			figure: {
+				children: {
+					img: {},
+				},
+			},
+		};
+		// Block elements like figure should be removed, not unwrapped.
+		const input = '<figure> </figure>';
+		const output = '';
+		expect( removeInvalidHTML( input, schema, false ) ).toEqual( output );
+	} );
+} );