diff --git a/.github/workflows/ci.yml b/.github/workflows/ci.yml
index 8b1dbf62..59681dff 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/ci.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/ci.yml
@@ -9,7 +9,10 @@ jobs:
 
     strategy:
       matrix:
-        node-version: [10.x, 12.x, 14.x, 16.x]
+        # 16.14+ requires import assertions for *.json imports, but this causes
+        # syntax errors on older node versions so we're locking CI to 16.13 for
+        # now
+        node-version: [10.x, 12.x, 14.x, 16.13]
 
     steps:
     - uses: actions/checkout@v1
diff --git a/examples/node-esmodules/example.mjs b/examples/node-esmodules/example.mjs
index 38dfc40b..a265b459 100644
--- a/examples/node-esmodules/example.mjs
+++ b/examples/node-esmodules/example.mjs
@@ -10,7 +10,7 @@ import {
   version as uuidVersion,
 } from 'uuid';
 import * as uuid from 'uuid';
-import pkg from 'uuid/package.json' assert {type: 'json'};
+import pkg from 'uuid/package.json';
 
 console.log('uuidv1()', uuidv1());