diff --git a/tests/test_cli_e2e.py b/tests/test_cli_e2e.py
index 5f5c0fc..56b207f 100644
--- a/tests/test_cli_e2e.py
+++ b/tests/test_cli_e2e.py
@@ -242,12 +242,18 @@ def _run_cli(*args, env=None):
     Uses ``sys.executable`` so the same interpreter that runs pytest runs
     the CLI. cwd is pinned to PROJECT_ROOT so the script's config-file
     auto-discovery (./searxng.toml) behaves deterministically.
+
+    ``encoding="utf-8"`` is explicit because Windows Chinese systems default
+    to GBK for subprocess text decoding, which crashes on non-ASCII chars
+    in --help output (e.g. box-drawing chars, em-dashes). The script itself
+    already forces UTF-8 stdout via ``force_utf8_stdout()``, so this just
+    matches the decoding side.
     """
     full_env = {**os.environ, **(env or {})}
     cmd = [sys.executable, str(PROJECT_ROOT / "scripts" / "search.py")] + list(args)
     return subprocess.run(
         cmd, cwd=str(PROJECT_ROOT),
-        capture_output=True, text=True, timeout=30,
+        capture_output=True, text=True, encoding="utf-8", timeout=30,
         env=full_env,
     )