But snatching people off a foreign country's streets and holding them incommunicado in an undisclosed place without charge for months, even years, without even their families' knowledge, is unlawful, whether or not torture is involved.
This allowed the new business, once local-government approval was obtained in China, to accept foreign private-equity money invested into the overseas holding company, while abiding by the letter of Beijing's restrictions on foreign investment in domestic enterprises.
On his own trip to Israel, Mr Cook did much banging of Europe's drum, reminding his hosts that on top of being Britain's foreign secretary he represented the country holding the rotating presidency of the European Union a person, in other words, to whom the Israelis had jolly well better pay attention.