diff --git a/src/Docfx.Dotnet/Resources/XmlCommentTransform.xsl b/src/Docfx.Dotnet/Resources/XmlCommentTransform.xsl
index 236d49c7383..1bbe69ef486 100644
--- a/src/Docfx.Dotnet/Resources/XmlCommentTransform.xsl
+++ b/src/Docfx.Dotnet/Resources/XmlCommentTransform.xsl
@@ -28,7 +28,7 @@
   <xsl:template match="see[@href and not(parent::member)]">
     <a>
       <xsl:apply-templates select="@*|node()"/>
-      <xsl:if test="not(text())">
+      <xsl:if test="not(node())">
         <xsl:value-of select="@href"/>
       </xsl:if>
     </a>
@@ -37,7 +37,7 @@
   <xsl:template match="seealso[@href and not(parent::member)]">
     <a>
       <xsl:apply-templates select="@*|node()"/>
-      <xsl:if test="not(text())">
+      <xsl:if test="not(node())">
         <xsl:value-of select="@href"/>
       </xsl:if>
     </a>
diff --git a/test/Docfx.Dotnet.Tests/XmlCommentUnitTest.cs b/test/Docfx.Dotnet.Tests/XmlCommentUnitTest.cs
index 1a6f0447d24..875db25cd76 100644
--- a/test/Docfx.Dotnet.Tests/XmlCommentUnitTest.cs
+++ b/test/Docfx.Dotnet.Tests/XmlCommentUnitTest.cs
@@ -42,6 +42,13 @@ public static void Issue4165()
         Assert.Equal("arg1", comment.Parameters["args"]);
     }
 
+    [Fact]
+    public static void Issue8965()
+    {
+        Verify("<seealso href=\"https://github.com\"><em>See also on MDN</em></seealso>", "<a href=\"https://github.com\">\n  <em>See also on MDN</em>\n</a>");
+        Verify("<see href=\"https://github.com\"><em>See also on MDN</em></see>", "<a href=\"https://github.com\">\n  <em>See also on MDN</em>\n</a>");
+    }
+
     [Fact]
     public static void BasicCodeBlock()
     {