diff --git a/src/cmd/go/go_test.go b/src/cmd/go/go_test.go
index c9bd9be03c..c96acb74c9 100644
--- a/src/cmd/go/go_test.go
+++ b/src/cmd/go/go_test.go
@@ -3432,3 +3432,21 @@ func TestMatchesOnlySubtestParallelIsOK(t *testing.T) {
 	tg.grepBothNot(noMatchesPattern, "go test did say [no tests to run]")
 	tg.grepBoth(okPattern, "go test did not say ok")
 }
+
+func TestLinkXImportPathEscape(t *testing.T) {
+	// golang.org/issue/16710
+	tg := testgo(t)
+	defer tg.cleanup()
+	tg.setenv("GOPATH", filepath.Join(tg.pwd(), "testdata"))
+	exe := "./linkx" + exeSuffix
+	tg.creatingTemp(exe)
+	tg.run("build", "-o", exe, "-ldflags", "-X=my.pkg.Text=linkXworked", "my.pkg/main")
+	out, err := exec.Command(exe).CombinedOutput()
+	if err != nil {
+		tg.t.Fatal(err)
+	}
+	if string(out) != "linkXworked\n" {
+		tg.t.Log(string(out))
+		tg.t.Fatal(`incorrect output: expected "linkXworked\n"`)
+	}
+}
diff --git a/src/cmd/go/testdata/src/my.pkg/main/main.go b/src/cmd/go/testdata/src/my.pkg/main/main.go
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..397e8b66a2
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/cmd/go/testdata/src/my.pkg/main/main.go
@@ -0,0 +1,5 @@
+package main
+import "my.pkg"
+func main() {
+	println(pkg.Text)
+}
diff --git a/src/cmd/go/testdata/src/my.pkg/pkg.go b/src/cmd/go/testdata/src/my.pkg/pkg.go
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..0a5466ef17
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/cmd/go/testdata/src/my.pkg/pkg.go
@@ -0,0 +1,2 @@
+package pkg
+var Text = "unset"
diff --git a/src/cmd/link/internal/ld/data.go b/src/cmd/link/internal/ld/data.go
index 73c0daa77c..5197cb99b4 100644
--- a/src/cmd/link/internal/ld/data.go
+++ b/src/cmd/link/internal/ld/data.go
@@ -1025,11 +1025,12 @@ func strnputPad(s string, n int, pad []byte) {
 var strdata []*Symbol
 
 func addstrdata1(ctxt *Link, arg string) {
-	i := strings.Index(arg, "=")
-	if i < 0 {
+	eq := strings.Index(arg, "=")
+	dot := strings.LastIndex(arg[:eq+1], ".")
+	if eq < 0 || dot < 0 {
 		Exitf("-X flag requires argument of the form importpath.name=value")
 	}
-	addstrdata(ctxt, arg[:i], arg[i+1:])
+	addstrdata(ctxt, pathtoprefix(arg[:dot])+arg[dot:eq], arg[eq+1:])
 }
 
 func addstrdata(ctxt *Link, name string, value string) {