<p>Autistic children often experience challenges in interactive reading due to difficulties in social communication and language. This study examined the associations between code-related and meaning-related emergent literacy skills and verbal engagement during shared book reading with Chinese autistic children. Forty-one Chinese autistic children were assessed on nonverbal intelligence, code-related skills (Chinese character recognition, print and word awareness, name writing, and phonological awareness), and meaning-related skills (receptive vocabulary, expressive vocabulary, and listening comprehension). Children and their caregivers participated in a shared book reading session using an unfamiliar storybook. Audio recordings of the interactions were transcribed and coded for children’s verbal engagement (text reading, story description, story inference, and responsivity). Results indicated that both code-related and meaning-related literacy skills showed statistically significant associations with verbal engagement during shared book reading. After controlling for children’s age and nonverbal intelligence, code-related skills, particularly print and word awareness, were associated with multiple aspects of verbal engagement, whereas meaning-related skills were associated with fewer aspects. These findings suggest that autistic children’s verbal engagement during shared book reading may be closely related to their print-oriented, code-related literacy competencies.</p>