Microsoft C++ compiler error? C3209

[MBmanifest]

I am supporting a program that runs on a OS/390 machine (USS Compile Cxx),
Linux (redhat g++), and AIX (Cxx). On all of these platforms, the following
compiles and runs fine:

char x= '3';
if (((x >= '1') &&
(x <= '5')) ¦¦
(x == 'X'))
{
cout << "hello" << endl;
}

On microsoft, the compiler chokes on line 3 with "error C3209: " : Unicode
identifiers are not yet supported"

If I break it down to sep. if statements, it works fine. Furthermore if I
convert '1' to an int, e.g. "int ONE= '1';" and the "char x= '3'; int y=x;"
But this is goofy. I can't hard code the integer value, e.g. 0x31 for '1'
because of the whole ASCII/EBCDIC thing, unless I get into #if stuff.

I think this should work as I have it coded, am I doing something
fundamentally wrong?