Jamil Anderlini, the FT’s Beijing bureau chief, is the winner of this year’s inaugural Jones-Mauthner Memorial Prize. In a strong field, Samantha Pearson, the FT’s Sao Paulo correspondent, was awarded the prize of runner-up.

The Jones-Mauthner Memorial Prize recognises outstanding reporting of international affairs by an FT journalist under 40. It is intended to encourage the tradition of excellence exemplified by the late JDF Jones and Robert Mauthner during their time as senior FT journalists.

The judges praised Jamil Anderlini for his courageous reporting and high-quality writing at a time of great political upheaval in China. His dispatches included an analysis of the 90th anniversary of the Communist Party, a video from the rebellious village of Wukan, and a commentary on the vulnerability of the Chinese political elite. As the winner, he will receive a prize of £5,000.

In honour of JDF Jones, the long-time FT foreign editor, the judges decided that the prize of runner-up should go to a younger journalist displaying great promise as well as excellent journalism. Samantha Pearson will receive £2000 for her excellent work.

In recognition of the high quality and range of entries from all over the world, the judges decided to highly commend Tobias Buck in the winner’s category for his outstanding Big Page on the erosion of Israeli democracy. Ben Bland was also highly commended as runner-up for his vivid reporting from Vietnam.

The judges were Lionel Barber, editor; Alec Russell, comment and analysis editor; Sarah Gordon, companies editor; Bridget Bloom, long-time Africa editor and defence correspondent; and Guy de Jonquieres, long-time world trade editor and Asia commentator.

The Jones-Mauthner Memorial Prize will run for five years and is being funded by former and current FT journalists.