mIRC version: 6.14
Charset: GB2312
Try this simple command and notice that "ab" is not displayed.
//echo -a ab $+ $chr(3) $+ <multibyte>
And this more complicated command:
//echo -a <multibyte> $+ $chr(3) $+ ab $+ $chr(3) $+ <multibyte> $+ $chr(3) $+ cd $+ $chr(3) $+ <multibyte>
(In the commands above, substitute <multibyte> with multibyte characters such as Chinese characters)
To summarize: when one or two ASCII characters are followed by control codes(Ctrl+B/K/R/U) followed by multibyte characters, the ASCII characters are not displayed.