This from a friend who speaks Mandarin.

The HE, SHE pronouns are written differently, but said the same. Verbally, no one can tell the difference.
The word is pronounced "ta". It means he, she and it. It is it's own possessive, objective and subjective variations. All of those tenses are other words added later in a sentence. It works.

As an aside, the way that the mandarin "we/us" is pronounced is "woman".