diff --git a/include/wx/wxchar.h b/include/wx/wxchar.h
index 6b82bc62f4..3aaa9ba0b6 100644
--- a/include/wx/wxchar.h
+++ b/include/wx/wxchar.h
@@ -396,6 +396,8 @@
                 #define  wxPuts      putws
                 #define  wxFputs     fputws
             #else
+                #define wxNEED_FPUTWC
+
                 #include <stdio.h>
 
                 int wxFputs(const wxChar *ch, FILE *stream);
diff --git a/src/common/wxchar.cpp b/src/common/wxchar.cpp
index c19ed120c7..7f532e5b36 100644
--- a/src/common/wxchar.cpp
+++ b/src/common/wxchar.cpp
@@ -451,7 +451,7 @@ int WXDLLEXPORT wxSnprintf_(wxChar *buf, size_t len, const wxChar *format, ...)
 // implement the standard IO functions for wide char if libc doesn't have them
 // ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
 
-#ifndef HAVE_FPUTWC
+#ifdef wxNEED_FPUTWC
 
 int wxFputs(const wchar_t *ws, FILE *stream)
 {
@@ -467,7 +467,7 @@ int /* not wint_t */ wxPutc(wchar_t wc, FILE *stream)
     return wxFputs(ws, stream);
 }
 
-#endif // HAVE_FPUTWC
+#endif // wxNEED_FPUTWC
 
 // NB: we only implement va_list functions here, the ones taking ... are
 //     defined below for wxNEED_PRINTF_CONVERSION case anyhow and we reuse